Tuesday September 29th 2026
In East Lothian 99% of street lights have now been replaced with LED lighting which has reduced energy costs by 60%
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Marie Sharp
Street blackouts in East Lothian have damaged public confidence in the council despite claims by officers they are being caused by old ScottishPower cables.
A report on the state of the county’s roads admits investment in street lights has fallen in recent years with the cost of replacing a backlog of columns which have passed their life expectancy estimated at £14million.
The council says one in four lighting columns have outlived their working life – more than 5,000 – with funding only available to replace 200 each year.
However it adds that 99 per cent of the lights themselves are now LED which has reduced the energy costs of operating them by 60 per cent.
The report said one of the biggest causes of complaints about the street lights is blackouts which can be out of their control with a third of cabling used by the street lighting network operated by ScottishPower.
Officers are calling on council to consider replacing the ‘older’ ScottishPower cables which make up a third of all cabling with their more modern council maintained network.
Their report said: “Faults on these cables can affect multiple lighting columns simultaneously, resulting in large areas being left without street lighting and generating significant numbers of customer enquiries and complaints.
“ScottishPower response to multi-unit faults can take up to four weeks before a repair is carried out, longer for single units. Although, there is no direct cost to council in repairing these faults, prolonged outages can have a significant impact on public confidence and customer satisfaction.
“The public often perceive all street lighting as the council’s responsibility and may not distinguish between faults on council assets and those within the electricity distribution network.
“As a result, repair delays can negatively affect perceptions of the council’s performance, even where the Council has limited control over resolution times.
“Consideration should be given to replacing Scottish Power’s supply cables with our own to improve our service to the public.”
A spokesperson for SP Energy Networks which oversee the supply, said: “We recognise the importance of street lighting to local communities and understand the frustration that can be caused when faults affect multiple lighting columns.
“Where faults occur on electricity distribution assets owned and operated by ScottishPower Energy Networks (SPEN), we work to assess and repair these as safely and quickly as possible.
“The complexity of repairs can vary significantly depending on factors such as the nature of the fault, its location, the condition of the network and any excavation or traffic management requirements.
“We appreciate that members of the public do not always distinguish between local authority street lighting assets and electricity network infrastructure, and we continue to work closely with local authorities to help resolve issues affecting customers.”
Tweet Share on FacebookNews
