The Parish Council is responsible for the provision and maintenance of the 36 streetlights that are situated within the Village (including Aynho Wharf). The lights are provided for pedestrians. We pay for electricity and maintenance from the Aynho Precept (part of your Council Tax Bill) and currently spend £2,650 for electricity and £450 in routine maintenance plus additional costs if current light fittings fail. This represents about 10% of our annual budget.
In November 2018 the Parish Council undertook a consultation about replacing the existing streetlights within the village; modern streetlights, using LED technology, are about 80-90% cheaper to operate.
Following consultation we have sought four companies to tender for streetlight replacement and at the July PC meeting selected a contractor to undertake the works, which is expected to be undertaken in October 2019. The contractor selected is Zeta Specialist Lighting Ltd, based in Bicester.
The Parish Council is to replace all the current lights as most of the fittings within the village are old and utilitarian and as such not particularly in keeping with a Conservation Village. There is also a mix of fittings and light colours. All new lights will be of a Heritage Style and thus a uniform feel throughout the village. Where possible existing columns will be retained and painted black and where lights are mounted on disused electricity posts – these will be replaced with new columns and lights.
New lights will be ‘top down’, thus reducing light pollution and will dim to 50% power from midnight until 5am and will be a ‘warm’ light colour at 2700K.
Having selected the contractor and light fittings the expected electricity bill will now be £450 – a saving of 83% per year in our case. The annual maintenance costs will also reduce significantly.
More details will be published on the Aynho website including images of the light to be used. If you have any questions please email clerk@aynho.org.