MORE than half of Swindon’s traffic lights are now using energy and money-saving light-emitting diodes instead of halogen bulbs.

Workers from Swindon Borough Council have replaced the bulbs in 67 of the borough traffic lights sites this year.

That brings the total of sites using LED to 151 out of 206 sites.

In the 67 upgrades carried out this year a total of 458 traffic light heads were changed. which is approximately 1,374 new LED red, amber and green light fittings

Cabinet member for highways councillor Maureen Penny said: “This is a glowing example of one of the many things the council is doing to help reach carbon neutrality by 2030.

"So far we’ve already spent £15m on low carbon interventions to improve our local environment as part of our carbon reduction strategy.

“This scheme, combined with our LED street lighting programme, solar energy farms and investment in electrical vehicles, amongst others, will help us deliver on government targets.

“I’m very pleased that the scheme has caused little to no disruption for our residents and I hope that, going forward, our traffic lights provide a more reliable and safer experience for motorists and pedestrians on Swindon’s roads.”

The council said the change of the lights this year will save more than £33,000 in energy and maintenance costs per year and will reduce the council’s annual carbon footprint by 66 tons of carbon dioxide.

The £193,000 scheme will take just under six years to repay and is expected to start realising savings by the end of 2020.

The remaining 55 halogen bulb sites are due to be replaced, refurbished, altered or removed through other council programmes.

Any traffic light sites that have been refurbished within the last 10 years will already have LEDs.