Some really great news for Sidmouth: Devon County Council's street lighting engineers having finally managed to arrange for replacement LED lanterns for all the streetlights along the Esplanade.

Having looked at several alternative options ... but in the end have agreed with Urbis to have totally new 'Victory' lanterns manufactured, so visually there will be no change to the appearance of those already there. The new lanterns as those changed over across the Sid Valley will also be linked into the Telensa monitoring system which allows the remote control including dimming remotely from Exeter.

Hopefully we will be able to get an order to Enerveo (SSE's new name if you weren't aware!) in the next week or so and I believe that the lanterns as Urbis have to make new tooling that's required to form the polycarbonate bowls, this will probably take 14-16 weeks to arrive, and so, realistically with the end of the financial year quickly approaching & that Enerveo's works program is already full until the end of March, the new lanterns won't be able to be fitted until April at the earliest ... so watch this space.

It is also hoped that Sidmouth Town Council will be successful in securing a county council enhancement grant for the repainting of the columns.

The streetlights are currently painted matte black and the County Council would prefer this to remain so (especially as we have requested the new LED's lanterns to be black) so hopefully Sidmouth Town Council and the county council can source the matte black paint originally used. The Sidmouth coat of arms on the column doors will also have to be carefully hand painted.