Street lighting

I would like to report a faulty or broken street light

• How to report a faulty or broken street light

  If you wish to report a faulty or broken street light, you will need to contact the electricity distributor that operates the light on behalf of Council.

  The electricity distributor you should call depends on which half of Merri-bek you live in.

  Jemena operates the lights in the streets north of Moreland Road. You can use the Jemena web tool or contact Jemena on 13 16 26 to report a fault.

  Citipower operates the lights in the streets south of Moreland Road. You can use the Citipower web tool to report a fault.

• How to report a train station or railway underpass light

  If the faulty light you want to report is near a train station or in a railway underpass, you can report it to Public Transport Victoria by calling 1800 800 007.

• Which lights are council responsible for?

  We have responsibility for faulty lights in the following locations:

  • parks
  • Victoria Mall
  • Sparta Place
  • Council-managed car parks
  • Council-managed facilities
  • sports grounds
  • community centres, and
  • Maternal and Child Health centres.

  You can any faulty lights in these locations to us online by phoning 9240 1111.

I would like to request a street lighting review

If you think your street needs more lighting, you can request a street lighting review online or by calling 9240 1111.

• What happens when I request a street lighting review

  We will send out Council officers who will take assess your street's lighting. If we find that your street is not well-lit, we will generally decide to put up an additional or brighter light.

  If an additional light is needed, it will be installed by Jemena or CitiPower. This can take up to 3 months.

Overall, a public lighting review can take up to 6 months from initial request to installation of new lamps.

Our Public Lighting Policy

Merri-bek Council monitors the performance of public street lights provided by electricity distributors CitiPower and Jemena and supplies and maintains some public lights in Council parks . Our Public Lighting Policy (DOC 156Kb) that determines how public lights in Merri-bek lights are installed and maintained. The Policy also aims to:

• improve public safety
• give all of Merri-bek equal access to public lighting
• make sure that our public lighting is of a good standard and quality.

The Policy sets out the different light levels in different parts of Merri-bek. Under the Policy and the Australian Standard, lanes do not require lighting. However, we will consider installing lights in lanes when:

• the lane leads to an area which is visited at night by people, such as a dining area
• the lane provides a link to a railway station.

There are more than 11,000 public street lights within the City of Merri-bek. Council monitors the performance of these lights, to ensure overall illumination levels meet the guidelines in Australian Standard for public lighting.

• Energy efficient lighting upgrade

  We have now finished changing over our street lights from mercury vapour to LED lights. This means that we are providing energy efficient lighting all over Merri-bek. This is one of the ways we are meeting our commitment to sustainability.

  These lights use less power to operate, but provide an 100 per cent increase in brightness. This keeps our community safe.

  Changing to LED lights has also lead to:

  • electricity savings of close to 80 per cent, and
  • maintenance cost reductions of around 50 per cent.