Local authorities in Scotland are set to invest a further £56 million in LED street lighting over the next twelve months.

The initiative, which will save 65,000 tonnes of CO2, will result in nearly one-third of the country's street lamps being LEDs by April 2017.

Out of the 900,000 existing street lights across Scotland, 125,000 new LEDs have already been installed.

Overall, total investment is expected to reach £337m by 2021, delivering energy/maintenance cost savings of £1.2 billion and saving 2.6 million tonnes of CO2 over the next 20 years.

Lindsay McGregor, associate director at Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) and leader of the street lighting programme, said: "With our carefully researched toolkit, we have demonstrated to councils how short the payback period can be when they make an investment in new LEDs – in many cases it can be just a few years.

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"With support from Scottish Government and Zero Waste Scotland, £82m has already invested over the last three years and all Scotland’s councils are at various stages of installing energy efficient lights. Our job is to help those who are in the very early stages to prepare robust business cases and secure funding for new LEDs to then reap the financial and environmental rewards once installed."

South Lanarkshire Council has already installed 19,000 LED lights and is on target to replace all its 58,000 street lights within the next two years.

The council's Head of Roads and Transportation Services, Gordon Mackay, said: "We are delighted that figures show we have installed the most LEDs in Scotland.

"The use of more efficient LED light sources, which focus light on roads and pavements, will help the Council to reduce energy consumption, together with the associated carbon emissions, by some 50%."

(LM/MH)