Roads Service is responsible for street lighting on public roads and streets across Northern Ireland.
In April 2007, the number of street lights was just over 261,000.
- Street lights are provided mainly to improve road safety at night, but we know that they also help to reduce crime and the fear of crime, and to enhance the night-time urban environment
- Generally, all roads, car parks and footpaths adopted (owned) by Roads Service in urban areas are lit
- Rural roads are not usually lit unless there is a community of at least 10 houses along a 200-metre stretch, or a history of night-time road collisions
- The street lights in new housing developments are installed by the building developer during construction of the roads
- Roads Service is responsible for maintaining streetlights. On new housing developments, we adopt and maintain the lights after the developer has done the necessary certification of the new system and requested handover to us.
- We inspect street lights at night, every fortnight in winter and every 4 weeks in summer, to identify any that are not working properly
- Our maintenance work is carried out by Roads Service personnel and private contractors
- We aim to have at least 98% of street lights working normally at any one time
- We also aim to repair faults within 10 working days of discovery, unless the fault is due to the electricity supply and repair depends on the response of the supply company
- We have an annual programme of replacing old deteriorating columns
- We spend approximately £17 million per year on electricity charges and maintaining and replacing street lights
- We aim to minimise light pollution and conserve energy by using efficient lanterns for new and replacement lighting schemes.
- Roads Service is not responsible for security lighting to NIHE or housing association houses, or to council parks
You can also Report a Fault Online.
Remember, if you want to report a faulty light, you can help us greatly by telling us the light’s identification number (i.e. the yellow number on the column) along with the other location details such as the street or road name, village, town or townland. This all helps us to attend to the right light and provide the good service that we strive to give.
