Have your say on the new gas effect LED lanterns

• AS part of the city council’s street lighting upgrade programme and the electrification of gas lights, we want to hear from residents to ensure the upgraded lights maintain the heritage look and feel as accurately as possible.

We are committed to ensuring the special character of the existing lighting is retained. We have worked closely with a specialist manufacturer to develop a solution which replicates the look and style of our heritage lanterns without significantly changing the appearance.

These works are part of a series of measures to help us become a carbon-zero council by 2030. Electrifying our gas lighting will reduce carbon emissions by over 80 per cent from the current 200 tonnes a year the gas lights produce.

The embodied carbon in the work required to electrify our lights is just under one year’s gas emissions. Around 300 of our 14,000 street lightings are gas powered.

While this is a small amount of the overall number of lights, they proportionally produce eight times as much carbon emissions yet provide only a quarter of the light as a much lower energy modern LED lantern.

Gas lighting is increasingly difficult and costly to maintain, and it does not provide suitable lighting levels for residents and visitors.

Street lights are there to ensure people, especially those more vulnerable, feel safe at night. Personal safety becomes a concern when there are long delays in our ability to repair historic gas lights. Leaving them out of light and areas in darkness is something we must avoid.

Our whole approach to this work is focused on preservation – that’s why our partnership with Historic England is so important.

The pictured lanterns are representative of the newly manufactured LED versions of the gas lanterns. Attention to detail including the pipe work, brass clock and replica mantles all look and give the appearance of a gas lantern. The output of the LEDs can also be adjusted during the night to the appropriate of level of people on the street.

As part of the review, we have organised three site visits, at Queen Anne’s Gate, near St James’s Park station, to discuss the extensive works undertaken to date in developing the gas mimics, gain feedback, and see first-hand the gas effect LED lanterns in operation.

The dates for the visits are:

— Tuesday October 25 at 7:30pm;

— Wednesday November 5 at 7:30pm; and

— Thursday November 10 at 7:30pm.

If you would like to attend one of the three evening site visits on Queen Anne’s Gate, let us know by contacting lighting@westminster.gov.uk with your details and preferred date of visit so we can manage attendance.

CLLR PAUL DIMOLDENBERG
Cabinet Member for City Management & Air Quality
City Hall, Victoria Street, SW1