FOLLOWING the acceptance of £650,000 from Liverpool City Region, work is starting to upgrade Wirral's traffic signals to energy efficient LED lights. 

Any new traffic lights that have been installed or upgraded since 2008/9 were already fitted with LEDs and, with a specific project that started in September 2022 to replace traffic lights with more efficient LED lighting, almost 70% of the current network is operating with LED lighting.

Through this latest round of funding, the whole network of Wirral’s traffic lights will transition to operate on LED traffic lights. 

Cllr Liz Grey, Chair of the Environment, Climate Emergency and Transport Committee for Wirral Council, said: "This change will have a positive impact on the environment and climate emergency as the lights will require less energy to operate and have a longer life expectancy – helping to reducing maintenance costs and resource consumption."

The project will see works across all areas of the borough, with the aim to be completed by March 2025. 

As part of the project, any of the poles that the traffic lights sit on will also be repaired or replaced where needed and where possible, materials such as steel signal poles will be recycled.

Wirral Council has accepted funding from Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and the disbursement of the funding through the City Region’s traffic signals contract, of £654,918 to complete the works. 

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA) is using part of the Transforming Cities Funding project to finance this work, which was approved by the LCRCA in March 2021.