A TOTAL of £13.5million government cash has been bid for by Borough of Poole to overhaul street lighting, roads and footways across the borough.

Two bids have been made to the Department for Transport for a chunk of money from the Local Maintenance Challenge Fund, on top of the existing funding for the borough.

The council is hoping to secure an £8million contribution to its £11.2million street lighting LED replacement programme – an ‘invest to save’ initiative to convert all lanterns to energy efficient LEDs and replace all columns more than 40 years old – saving of some 70 per cent in street lighting energy consumption.

And a £5.5million highways maintenance bid is in, with the cash intended for a £6.8 million resurfacing programme enabling the council to renew 13 kilometres – approximately eight miles – of highway and footways throughout the borough.

The highways maintenance application also includes provision to do rock armour repairs to safeguard the shared cycleway footway in the section of Holes Bay from Hunger Hill Roundabout to the railway line beneath Holes Bay Road.

Should the money be awarded it will make a huge difference to the council’s current funding levels, which only allows for between 0.7 per cent and one per cent of Poole’s road network to be resurfaced each year.

Councillor Ian Potter, cabinet portfolio holder for transportation, Borough of Poole, said: “If successful, this will help the council to improve the condition of the highways in Poole over the next three years. Going forward, it will also help to reduce the amount of expensive patching and pothole repairs that the council has to carry out.”

It is anticipated that the DfT will announce successful applications during March this year.