Street lights maintained by Whitchurch Town Council will be converted to LED after councillors in the town gave the go-ahead.

The town’s 203 lights, of which 15 have already been converted, are set for the LED lamps after councillor approved the move at its last meeting in February, with the work being carried out by Highline, who replaced the lights in Wem and Oswestry.

Whitchurch mayor, Councillor Bev Duffy welcomed the contractors to do the work and said she is looking forward to the role they will play in the town.

She said “Highline know the town very well so we are in safe hands.

“Due to a change in production the street lighting bulbs that our current lights use are no longer being manufactured so Whitchurch Town Council is ensuring that lights stay on in Whitchurch following the most environmentally-friendly route possible.

“Unlike Shropshire Council, we do not operate partial night lighting.

“All town council streetlights stay on until dawn.”

Highline plan to complete the work in one go, starting in May 2020.

The length of the project will be four weeks and it is hoped that all of the replacement LEDs will fitted by the middle of June.

Town centre manager Zoë Dean added: “Replacement lighting will be fitted in the following areas: Bathfield Crescent, Thompson Drive, Caldecott Crescent, Wrexham Road, Queensway, Sharps Drive, Fraser Court, Highfield Avenue, Edward German Drive, Neufchatel Close, Churton Drive, Wayland Close, Brook Road, Anchor Close, George Street, Elizabeth Street, Blakemere Close, Bath Street, Castillion Drive, Egerton Place, Clayton Drive, Anchor Close, Pearl Yard, Burway Drive, Church Meadows, Mile Bank Road, and The Grove.”

Andy Vaughan, managing director of Highline, said they were looking forward to getting started.

He added: “We are pleased to gain the contract and we look forward to helping the town council to further reduce the carbon footprint by dimming the LED lighting by 50 per cent at midnight, a further cost saving method which is not distinguishable to the naked eye.”

This step forward follows installing solar panels at the Civic Centre in 2019.

Ms Dean added: “There were 30KW of solar panels installed on south facing roof of the building’s Market Hall. Solar PV, or photovoltaics, generate electric power by using solar cells to convert energy from the sun into a flow of electrons using the photovoltaic effect.

“The solar cells produce direct current electricity from sunlight which can be used as an energy source.

“Unlike traditional energy generation such as coal or gas, when PV solar panels create electricity they don’t emit harmful greenhouse gases, pollute groundwater or deplete any natural resources.”