Residents can report a fault with a street light, or any other item of council owned street furniture, such as a bollard or road sign, with the Street equipment fault reporting form or by calling the Environmental Services Helpline on 01942 404364.
Repair times
Wigan Council's street lighting team aim to attend to a faulty street light within 3 working days. In 2009/10 the average time to complete a repair to a street light was around 4.24 days.
A recent survey of the council’s street lighting stock shows 99.53 per cent of almost 40,000 illuminated signs and lights around the borough in full working order. Nine out of 10 residents tell us that this makes them feel safer in their neighbourhoods and out on the roads as well.
The team have driven down response times or fault repairs, at no extra cost to the council taxpayer. This also applies to the work done in partnership with external bodies and with outside firms like Electricity North West (ENW).
The council has introduced new technology, such as a central management system for around 900 lighting units. This allows the lights to communicate with each other and remotely report back to street lighting engineers. It is one example of borough-wide investment to improve safety and security for all road users - drivers, pedestrians, locals and visitors.
With an eye to the future, the street lighting team has introduced energy saving solar power technology to the illuminated bollards seen on the streets.
A solar panel captures energy through the day light hours, stores the energy in a battery and a light sensor (photocell) switches on a light emitting diodes (LEDs) to illuminate the sign face through the hours of darkness. This reduces the council's energy consumption, carbon footprint and reduces the cost of energy used and meaning they need fewer services. And for the last ten years the electricity used for all the borough’s lighting has come from fully sustainable wind-power sources.
Public consultation is a major factor for council services and the street lighting team engage with residents in the delivery of the street lighting fault service.
We welcome the continued support of residents in providing their views on the experience using of the street lighting fault repair service so that we can continue to develop the service in the future. Surveys following the street lighting fault repairs show that the majority of residents express satisfaction with the team and the standard of repair carried out.
Although more than 99 per cent of the borough's lights are always lit and working, there are a still a great many needing attention and the council appreciates the public's help with its monitoring.
