Written question asked by Gordon Prentice (Labour) on Wednesday, 13 May 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 15 May 2009. It was answered by Paul Clark (Labour) on Monday, 18 May 2009 on behalf of the Department for Transport.

Lighting

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what information his Department holds on the number of lamp posts maintained by local authorities in England and in use which are beyond their design life; and if he will make a statement.

Answer: It is for each local authority to decide how to manage its street lighting systems and the Department for Transport does not regularly collect information on street lighting column age. In order to inform the local transport plan capital allocations, in 2006 the Department asked English local authorities outside London to report the number of columns they had aged 40 years or more. At that time, authorities reported 771,900 columns; but this figure has not been independently verified, and may include some columns no longer in use.The Department encourages local authorities to adopt an asset management approach to maintaining their highways assets, including basing decisions on accurate inventory and condition data rather than notional design lives.

Secondary information