Programme to repair street lights that are not working is launched this month in Milton Keynes

First to be tackled by the council contractors are faulty LED street lamps in Greenleys and Hodge Lea. These will all be replaced.

The council has asked members of the public not to park in front of the street light columns at this time as engineers need to park their work vehicles there for access.

A spokesman said: "We have over 58,000 street lights in MK and we'll be carrying out repairs to some of these in August and September."

MK Council's highways department and its service provider Ringway provide street lighting services across Milton Keynes in accordance with "national guidance, good practice and local factors", said the spokesman.

He said: "We undertake to repair defective streetlights in Milton Keynes in accordance with our local 'Code of Practice' and we have issued a series of service statements to summarise the main objectives of the service that we provide."

These statements are:

* The council will provide a street lighting service in accordance with our Code of Practice for street lighting maintenance.

* The council will carry out night time scouting of all streetlights on grid roads monthly, redways and underpasses every three months and Central Milton Keynes every six months to ensure that we identify and repair any lights that are not working.We will respond to reports of street lighting faults in all other areas.

* A 24 hr service will be provided and emergencies will be attended to within two to 24 hrs.

* The council will aim to repair a 'light out' within seven days of reporting. A single light out on a grid road will be within 28 days of reporting.

* Lights on during the day are not a safety issue. The council will prioritise these reports as a 'Planned Job' and will collate these reports then, when they have a programme, they will carry out repairs. This will typically be every two to three months. Day-burning lamps make up less than 5 per cent of faults repaired.

* The council will carry out structural and electrical testing of street lights annually.

Three years ago the council announced it had reduced its carbon footprint and saved energy by changing street lights to LEDs.

It said the energy consumption by street lights has been reduced and old materials had been recycled back into the industry.

At the time, a council spokesman said the new LED lights were expected to last up to 22 years.

He said: "The old style lanterns inside street lights will be going out of production in the next few years so the installation of the new LED lights could not have come at a better time."

It cost around £500 to upgrade each old lantern to new LED - with another £500 required to replace the column if needed.

The spokesman said: "This cost is the same whether this is an LED or old style lantern, but the LED offers much lower energy, reduced carbon and much lower maintenance. An LED lantern burns eight times longer than the old lamps, which burn out after 12,000 hours.".