Hundreds of street lights in St Ives will be replaced this summer.

Balfour Beatty is working with Cambridgeshire County Council to update and remove street lights in the town as part of a private finance initiative contract to replace 55,000 lights across the county.

A meeting is being held next Wednesday (July 2) at the Town Hall between 3pm and 8pm for residents to take a closer look at the plans and to raise questions or concerns.

A spokesman for Balfour Beatty told St Ives town councillors that the project would take three to four weeks to complete.

She added: “We find that if we hold meetings then people are more aware of what’s happening and if you’re a resident who has had a street light for 35 years and it is removed, it’s not as much as a shock.

“We will come in for about three to four weeks and it will be finished. We have found that by replacing lights in one swoop causes less disruption than going street by street.”

The existing yellow lights will be replaced by white lights, which will be on a remote control system.

Earlier this year, residents in St Neots raised concerns about the height of replacement street lighting in Eynesbury and Little Paxton which were double the height of the previous lampposts as well as replacing historic lamps with ones double the size.

Campaigners were successful in getting Balfour Beatty to provide shorter lampposts.

Pat Allan, chairman of the St Ives Civic Society, said members would be looking at the town centre and conservation area plans in detail to try to preserve the town centre’s heritage.

A Balfour Beatty spokesman said: “When the contract was agreed five years ago the county council highlighted designated areas where heritage lights are replaced like-for-like if they need to be replaced.”

INFORMATION: To look at the plans, visit www.lightingcambridgeshire.com.