WIRRAL Council’s leader Phil Davies will ask cabinet to approve plans to repair and upgrade every street light in Wirral as part of the borough’s record investment in street lighting and road safety infrastructure.

Councillor Davies said: “My recommendation will propose all of Wirral’s more than 27,000 street lamps, illuminated bollards and other road safety features across Wirral are improved over the next three years – with 9,000 street lights repaired and replaced in 2018 alone.

“This investment by my administration would mean every street light in Wirral, from major highways to country lanes and cul-de-sacs, will be replaced with a high-tech, energy efficient LED bulb.

“This is the single largest investment in our street lighting and road safety for ten years.

“Following a long-running campaign lead by Cllr Stuart Whittingham, cabinet member for transport, we are delighted to have secured £4.6m of funding from SALIX to provide 27,000 new lamps with remote control dimmers and switches.

“I will also be proposing to cabinet that we deploy £6m from our capital funds to take the opportunity to replace broken and damaged lamp-post columns at the same time, and to make a further £750,000 available to repair bollards, damaged signs and other safety features.”

Wirral Conservative group leader Ian Lewis said: "We have heard promises about investment in street lighting at every election for the past three years.

"If they can't even get the street lights sorted, what hope is there for the other issues facing this borough?

"Exactly how many Labour councillors does it take to change a light bulb?"

Wirral Liberal Democrat Phil Gilchrist said: "In dim dark days a few years ago Labour had streets of lights switched off to save money.

"I put forward a plan for LED replacements in 2014. It’s better late than never.

"How convenient that this announcement comes in election week. Too many lights are off, get the basics right. They must be getting some stick on the doorstep."