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 Download more
information about street lighting
(172KB) here,
including some questions that are asked frequently and details of how to report a fault. 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.
