Angus has slashed its street lighting bill by a whopping £430,000.
The six-figure underspend is forecast to bring the annual bill down from £1.266 million to a shade over £830,000, with savings going to help tackle winter weather on the area’s roads.
The street lighting underspend was a bright element of a report to councillors on the projected end-of-year position on an Angus Council budget, which totals around £250 million.
Technical chiefs said the savings had been achieved through a number of areas, including a lower unit price at the start of a new contract.
The report added: “The roads business unit have undertaken significant street lighting infrastructure improvement works recently, which have resulted in the replacement of inefficient lamps with new energy-efficient units, which results in significantly reduced energy consumption.
“Technical and property services is estimating a revenue budget underspend of £745,000. This can be split £241,000 property and £504,000 roads and transport.
“The roads and transport underspend can be further split between street lighting energy £430,000 and others £74,000 respectively.
The top contingency provision for the projected underspend will be to help soften any winter roads budget overspend which may arise in the coming months.