Street lighting

Report a fault

• Report a fault with a street light or illuminated traffic sign
• Track the progress of a previously reported fault

In office hours you can also phone: 0345 60 80 193.

Please provide the location of the street light and if possible give the number (usually found on the side facing the road) and a description of the fault, eg light off at night, light on in daytime, vandalism etc.

Street lights should operate from dusk until dawn, while lights in pedestrian subways are usually on 24 hours a day.

Changes to street lighting

To save money and reduce our carbon emissions we are turning off some of our street lights at night, reducing the number of lights in some streets and dimming others between midnight and the early hours.

We know some of you will have concerns. Each town or village has different needs, so we will ask you to tell us what you think about our plans for your area.

See our page about Changes to street lighting in East Sussex.

Maintenance and repair targets

Street lights and illuminated traffic signs are regularly maintained and inspected, including:

• patrols (at night) fortnightly in winter and monthly in summer
• inspections, tests and cleaning every two years
• bulk lamp changes generally every four years
• painting every 10 years (two years in coastal roads exposed to sea spray).

We maintain more than 42,000 street lights and illuminated signs. Some street lights in the county are the responsibility of the Highways Agency and local district or borough councils.

We aim to:

• repair faults such as single lights within five days of being reported or priority work (eg more than five lights out in a row) within 24 hours
• carry out emergency work within one hour of the fault being reported.

We design new lighting schemes to help reduce the risk of night-time accidents and improve public safety.

Conservation areas

Old or damaged street lights are usually replaced with standard street lights, depending on the category of the road. If the road is in a sensitive or conservation area, we ask other local councils to help with extra costs for non-standard street lights. If no funds are available, standard lighting is installed.

Standard street light columns in sensitive or conservation areas are repainted every ten years. Standard columns are not painted.

Find out more

Download:

• Highways leaflet ESH03 – Lighting on roads
• Equality Impact Assessment summary – Street lighting.