Residents of Cowes on the Isle of Wight - an English seaport and civil parish located on the west bank of the River Medina estuary - will be seeing their streetlights gradually transformed by LED technology, as part of the island's Highways private finance initiative (PFI).
It is the first town on the island for which such a project will have taken place.
The Highways PFI scheme is described by its official website as a "comprehensive upgrade - and maintenance over 25 years - of the island’s road, footway and cycleway network". Its rollout will be supporting the local economy as Island Roads - a local business which is committed to hiring people from the region to provide its service - has been awarded all of the contracts for the various projects involved.
Service director of Island Roads Paul Herbert said all of the lights would be replaced by LEDs over the next three years, the Isle of Wight Radio website reported.
"Due to the efficient nature of LEDs, this new lighting will be more reliable and - once installed - they will result in less lights out of service and will also support the Eco Island Vision," he said.
Eco Island Vision is a community interest company, which looks to identify and isolate local needs - and subsequently address them by launching initiatives and campaigns to solve problems and live more ecologically.
As chief executive of the company David Green asserts, the current global population needs resources from one and a half earths in order to sustain itself - which is completely untenable.
Replacing indoor or outdoor lighting with more eco-friendly technology such as LEDs is a surefire way for people to reduce their energy consumption and thereby bring down the impact of their carbon footprint on the planet.
