Street lighting has arguably been one of the more successful sectors for the local authority Private Finance Initiative, says senior technical advisor Bob Dutton of Atkins. The first street lighting Private Finance Initiative (PFI) scheme started in the London Borough of Brent in 1998. Since then the Department for Transport has approved PFI funding for 35 English local authority street lighting projects. This funding amounts to a total of ￡1.3Bn to replace obsolete and structurally unsafe street lighting. A review was carried out in 2006 by the 4ps (now Local Partnerships) of 15 operational street lighting PFIs and found that all projects were delivering at or above expectations. All showed significant improvements in service delivery and had improved lighting standards to current European standards. A more recent review by HM Treasury in July 2011 addressed making savings in operational PFIs.
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