Nearly 43,000 LED street lights are to be installed across Suffolk in a £9.8 million scheme which plans to replace two-thirds of the city’s street lights.

The council said the new LED lamps will be able to save as much as 60% in energy bills and reduce carbon usage on street lights by up to 80%.

It said the proposals, approved by Cabinet this week, were brought forward because energy prices were rising between 8% and 12% a year.

The new scheme follows previous measures to save costs which involved turning some street lights off at 23:30 in quieter roads, a measure reported to save about £90,000.

Andrew Reid, Suffolk County Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Rural Affairs, said: “We will be replacing almost 43,000 lights with new energy saving LED lanterns. This will save approximately 60% of our current energy bill which can be invested elsewhere. We will be able to reduce our carbon usage by around 80%, benefitting residents throughout Suffolk.“

To date, nearly 16,000 of the county council’s 60,076 street lights have been converted to LEDs.

Work on the conversion is expected to take place until autumn 2022.