New smart street lights are to be installed in Leeds after a £30million investment was approved.

Senior councillors approved a recommendation to invest £25.4million to convert 86,000 lights across the city to new LED lamps. The board also approved investing a further £5m in making the light system across the city more controllable in terms of utilising the latest technology as part a 'Smart City' network approach.

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The council currently spends around £4.8m a year on electricity to run approximately 92,000 street lights, with 6,000 of these already earmarked to be converted to LEDs if the wider programme is approved. The proposal called for the remaining 86,000 to also be converted over a four-year period starting next summer, generating savings of £3.4m a year at current energy prices when the programme is complete.

As well as making the lights more energy efficient, the upgrade offers the opportunity to make the light system 'smart' by being able to be controlled remotely and in real-time, connected as a network and with other city infrastructure such as CCTV, air quality and temperature monitoring.

The council will now work with street lighting partner TVL on the upgrading programme.