Purpose

To facilitate the upgrading of Wirral Council’s traffic signals to LED, and the replacement of corroded traffic signal poles at sites receiving the LED upgrade.

Decision

Grant funding has been accepted by the Assistant Director for Highways and Infrastructure in conjunction with the S151 Officer as per paragraph 2d of Part 3C of the Constitution. The Council will utilise the grant funding sum of £654,918 in 2023/24 from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority to facilitate the upgrading of the Council’s traffic signals to Light Emitting Diode, and the replacement of corroded traffic signal poles at sites receiving the Light Emitting Diode upgrade. The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has established a framework agreement for the light emitting diode signal upgrade works with Yunex limited and the council will utilise Yunex for the delivery of works pursuant and subject to the terms of the framework agreement.

Reasons for the decision

Wirral’s traffic signal assets require upgrading from filament lamps to Light Emitting Diode optics. The grant funding is required to carry out the upgrade of Wirral’s traffic signal assets. There is no other funding stream currently available.

Alternative options considered

The council could decide not to spend the grant funding and not progress with the light emitting diode traffic signal upgrade. This is not considered an appropriate option as it would compromise the Council’s ability to meet statutory obligations and result in risks set out in section 7.0 of the report. It could also result in future grant funding allocations being reduced against wider transport and regeneration programmes.