Background information on Nathalia street lights

Published on 21 May 2018

Moira Shire Council and members of the Nathalia community have been discussing the ageing streetlight fittings in Blake Street, Nathalia as the cost of replacing the non-standard lights falls to ratepayers.  

 Initial options being discussed included replacing them with standard street lights, the same as many other towns around Victoria or alternately replacing  the existing lights with the same heritage style light fittings at a cost of $77,000 for 22 lights.

Given the cost of the shire’s 2500 streetlights is around $235,000 annually, management initially proposed replacing the lights with standard fittings so the energy usage was reduced through LED lighting and future maintenance and replacement costs were bulk billed in an annualised charge rather than individually. 
With around 800 streetlights still to be converted to LED the thinking was that any available funds should be directed to more energy efficient lighting.
Following considerable community feedback two further heritage-style light fittings have been identified that are acceptable to Powercor and VicRoads, are energy efficient, are more in keeping with the heritage streetscape but, importantly, are at a lower cost for installation and replacement.
We are looking forward to providing this range of options to the community for their feedback later this week.