Council to purchase streetlights

Thames-Coromandel District Council approves purchase of Powerco streetlights.

At Tuesday's meeting of the Thames-Coromandel District Council, councillors voted to approve the purchase of 1,314 streetlights from Powerco.

In 2000 Powerco, then United Networks Ltd. offered Hauraki District Council (HDC), Matamata-Piako District Council (MPDC) and Thames-Coromandel District Council (TCDC) the opportunity to purchase the streetlights in their respective Districts. Even with Transfund (now NZTA) subsidising the cost, the purchase offer had a price tag of $232,000. TCDC declined.

Powerco recently offered Council the streetlights again, this time for $120,000 with a handover date of 1 July 2009. Council's streetlight inventory survey showed that the cost to replace all the streetlights, based on their current condition, would be $234,000 (excluding GST) and with the NZTA subsidy still available, the current price to Council would be $68,400 (excluding GST.)

On Tuesday, councillors approved the purchase of 1,314 streetlights from Powerco for the $68,400 and will manage this cost within existing 2008/09 District road budgets.