THE cost of Poole's LED street light replacement scheme has risen by £700,000 because of an "issue with the cable network."

Borough of Poole's (BOP) cabinet is recommending full council increases the £9million project's budget, which is financing the replacement of 17.500 street lamps across the town.

The scheme, to replace existing lanterns with the energy efficient LED lights, hit its halfway point in December.

Over the next 15 months around 5,000 concrete lampposts, which are more than 40 years old, will be replaced.

The latest hitch occurred because of problems with the existing cable network which needs to be replaced, engineers say.

BOP transport member Cllr Drew Mellor explained: "The street light replacement programme has been running very smoothly over the last sixteen months with minimal impact on local residents.

"The issue with the cable network was unforeseen and means a possible increase to the risk of column failures if those old columns affected by the non-compliant cables are not replaced."

Almost every road in Poole will have been affected by the LED replacement works, which will provide high quality 'white' light, the council says.

The new lights will remain switched on throughout the night but will be dimmed on certain streets during hours when highway use is relatively low.

Cllr Mellor said: "Cabinet is therefore recommending to full council that the current budget is increased by £700,000.

"This increase is still significantly under the original budget and will help save approximately 70 per cent on our street lighting energy consumption.

"In addition as the main contractor already has the necessary skills and expertise in place, full council is being asked to award this additional work to them."

A rolling-programme showing the roads that will be affected over the next few months is available on the council's website poole.gov.uk/LEDstreetlighting.