Public Street Lighting Council Policy

Introduction

Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to provide the principles upon which safe street and public place lighting will be provided and maintained.

Scope

The Policy (and supporting Engineering Design Note 14) applies to all street, public place and precinct lighting (as defined in the definitions) located in streets and public places under the jurisdiction of the City and within the City boundaries.

The City’s open spaces for active sport and recreation are excluded.

This Policy outlines how the City will work in collaboration with land developers, the distributor and/or other street lighting providers, and lighting hardware and software system developers to meet the changing needs in relation to street lighting.  

Definitions

City: The City of Greater Geelong organisation, led by the CEO.

Council: The City of Greater Geelong Council comprised of elected councillors and led by the Mayor.

Approved non-standard lighting: A non-standard fitting that complies with the distributor’s public lighting technical standards and can be placed on the non-metered distributor’s network.

Control Management System: A lighting management system that remotely operates and diagnoses faults in the street lighting network through light detection on the lamp (luminaire).

Distributor: An organisation which holds a distribution licence under the Electricity Industry Act 2000 for the distribution and supply of electricity (Powercor is the City’s current provider).

Non-standard fitting: A lamp fitting other than a standard fitting and is on a metered supply.

Non-standard street light: An approved decorative pole or non-standard light fitting or a standard pole that is powder coated an approved colour.

Precinct: An area where a development plan exists for the development and/or redevelopment of an area that creates greater than 100 lots. Plans may include but are not limited to a Precinct Structure Plan, Development Plan, Activity Centre Plan.

Public place: includes:

1. any bridge, footpath, court, alley, passage or thoroughfare open to or used by the public or
2. any park, garden, reserve or other place of public (passive) recreation or
3. any open space to which the public has or is permitted to have access or
4. any wharf, pier or jetty open to or used by the public

which is owned or managed by the City, but does not include a highway/freeway managed by Regional Roads Victoria.

Smart street lighting - A smart street light is a public lighting fixture that incorporates technology, such as cameras, light-sensing photocells and other sensors, to introduce real-time monitoring functionalities.

Standard lighting: Lamp (luminaire), mounting bracket, public lighting pole, supply cable or control equipment normally used by or acceptable to a distributor.  Standard lighting is normally on a non-metered supply and the assets owned by the distributor and therefore subject to the Public Lighting Code.

Policy

Aim

The aim of this Policy is to manage the provision of public lighting (or street lighting) to allow for and promote visual amenity, a sense of place, leading and practical urban design, cultural activities, the safe effective movement of vehicular, cycling and pedestrian traffic at night and the discouragement of illegal and anti-social acts (crime prevention).

Design standards

The public lighting/street lighting design process shall follow the current version of Australian/New Zealand Standard AS/NZS 1158 Road Lighting Standards, the Infrastructure Design Manual and the City’s additional requirements as set out in Engineering Design Note 14.

The standard of public lighting will be sufficient, and where practicable provide necessary amenity and visual information at night including the alignment of roadways, kerbs, footpaths, road line markings, property lines, essential signage and road traffic management furniture in any public space managed by the City of Greater Geelong.

Public lighting in addition to the primary function of illumination is an urban design element. The City will define the aesthetic standard of street lighting for commercial/high pedestrian volume areas such as Central Geelong or Major Activity Centres.  Standard street lighting will apply in other areas unless Decorative Non-Standard Street Lighting is specifically mentioned in the Urban Design Framework or other relevant Council documents (ie not this Policy) or continuing a previously agreed public lighting scheme.

Acceptance

The City will work with precinct and/or land developers to ensure public lighting meets the applicable standards and will only accept compliant public lighting (service levels, control management systems and aesthetics) before assuming the ongoing ownership, operation, maintenance and repairs.

Non-standard street lighting

The approved plans of the first development site within a precinct defines the remaining development stages’ street light style/standard to retain consistency throughout.  Approval may be given to the initial approved style/standard for specific areas within the precinct where a particular character is sought.  Where Decorative Non-Standard Street Lighting is installed subject to the City’s approval, a maintenance levy of 100% of the street lighting capital cost will be provided to the City to fund ongoing maintenance and replacement.  Payment is to be made on the transfer of the Non-Standard Street Lighting assets to the City.

The approved styles of Non-Standard Street Light poles and light fittings are defined in the Engineering Design Note 14.

The City’s responsibility

The City is responsible for replacing existing street lighting fittings and will consider the future integration of emerging technologies such as Control Management Systems, SMART Street Lighting, 5G communications etc.

Where existing public lighting uses out-dated technology, the City aims to upgrade these to the most cost-effective, environmentally beneficial technologies (eg LED, solar), including analysis of life cycle and minimising light spilling onto neighbouring properties and surrounds.

The City will be responsible for the ongoing operating, maintenance, repair and power costs of public lighting including instances where there are cost-sharing arrangements of streetlights in place (eg Regional Roads Victoria).

Implementation of this policy

Monitoring and reporting

The Manager Engineering Services is responsible for the monitoring and any reporting in relation to this policy.

Advice and assistance

The Manager Engineering Services manages the provision of advice to the organisation regarding this policy.
A person who is uncertain how to comply with this policy should seek advice from this person or from their Manager.

Records

The City must retain records associated with this policy and its implementation for at least the period shown below.

Review

The City should review and, if necessary, amend this policy within four years of the approval date.

References

• Road Management Act 2004
• Electricity Industry Act 2000
• Australian/New Zealand Standard AS/NZS 1158 Road Lighting Standards
• City of Greater Geelong:
• Greater Geelong Planning Scheme and amendments
• Where the following applies to a location or precinct and have been adopted by the City:
• Precinct Structure Plans
• Urban Design Frameworks
• Other relevant plans, frameworks and documents
• Public Realm Framework, update November 2019
• Public Lighting Design Note 14, Version 1, 2021
• Local Government Infrastructure Design Association: Infrastructure Design Manual (IDM) Current Version
• AustRoads: Guide to Road Design, Part 6B: Roadside Environment 2021
• VicRoads: TCG 006: Guidelines to Street Lighting Design, January 2016 Rev B
• Essential Services Commission: Public Lighting Code Version 2, December 2015