Specification
Redcar and Cleveland Council has appointed David Webster Limited (DW) and
LS Trillium (LST – previously Investors in the Community) as its service
provider for the £46m Street Lighting Private Finance Initiative (PFI)
project. The PFI Scheme is a Government-backed scheme, with £21.1m from
Government funding backed up by a £1m a year maintenance commitment
over the next 25 years from the Council. During the Core Investment Period
(CIP), 18,000 of the existing 22,000 lighting points will be replaced with
modern, high quality lighting in a phased programme over the next four years.
The contract starts on the 1st September 2007.
The citizens in Redcar & Cleveland place a high priority on good standards
of public lighting and signage. Recent community surveys suggest that more
than 1 in 4 were not satisfied with current service levels. Councillor Mary
Lanigan, Cabinet Member for Highways, Transportation and Planning said “our
surveys show the importance the public places on street lighting, with its
rating as the third most important service behind waste collection/recycling
and street cleaning”.
Not only does the majority of the lighting stock not meet BS EN 13201 lighting
standards, but most have passed their 25 year life expectancy. In addition
a number of back lanes and footpaths within the Borough are currently unlit.
Those columns which are younger have poor design spacing (i.e. too much space
between the columns) and different light sources, providing poor night time
visual recognition and colour rendering. These in particular will require
early replacement.
The proposed lighting design and installation programme has to also take into
consideration energy and environmental concerns such as the reduction of lighting
pollution and the conservation of energy; and whole life costing - equipment
selected and warranted to meet the life term of the 25 year contract and beyond.
The DW solution
Under the 25 year
Private Finance Initiative (PFI) agreement, a structured
replacement scheme (known as the Core Investment Period)
has been devised to
ensure all lighting units in the Borough meet the new
British and European
standards by replacing 85% of the existing stock within
the first four years, in
addition to an ongoing maintenance, repair, replacement
and testing
programme.
Under the obligations
placed on Councils by the Local Authorities Act 1999 in
respect of Best Value, DW will be working with the Redcar
and Cleveland Borough
Council in the first few months to ensure extensive consultation
of all stakeholders
affected by the new service takes place. This will be
in the form of consultation
letters and customer satisfaction surveys distributed
via local newspapers,
Council offices, libraries and similar outlets; the use
of local press and radio
stations to publicise the consultation process; and the
use of a dedicated web
page provided by DWL and updated regularly with installation
works scheme
dates, together with local and strategic consultation
meetings.
To meet some of the
Council’s Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) a new state-of-
the-art, web-enabled asset management system is being
installed. This will
enable DW to computerise all operational tasks, and allows
the Council real-time
access to the system to monitor performance; provide
detailed information on their
assets, and ensure a reliable and transparent record
of all events is captured. In
addition, the Council requires DW to provide a 24 hour
customer care service to
make it easier for residents to report faulty lighting
or damaged bollards.
Benefits to client
Brighter, safer and
more attractive streets.
An affordable, new,
street lighting infrastructure with the risk being transferred to
the Contractor.
Assists the Council
to achieve its obligations for public lighting within its Best
Value Performance Plan, by providing a service that is
in line with what local
people need, and which shows continual improvement for
the duration of the
contract.
