Construction group May Gurney has strengthened its foothold in Essex with a new street lighting contract. Hard on the heels of awarding the group a highways maintenance contract, Essex County Council has awarded Cartledge, May Gurney's street lighting business, a new stand-alone contract for the maintenance and installation of 140,000 units across county.

Construction group May Gurney has strengthened its foothold in Essex with a new street lighting contract.

Hard on the heels of awarding the group a highways maintenance contract, Essex County Council has awarded Cartledge, May Gurney's street lighting business, a new stand-alone contract for the maintenance and installation of 140,000 units across county.

The contract means that Cartledge is now the third-largest street lighting provider in the UK, looking after 370,000 lights.

The new contract, that starts from the April 1 and will run for three years with a possible two-year extension, doubles the company's street lighting work in the county and will be worth £5million a year. Currently, Cartledge is responsible for 67,000 lighting units in the north of the county only.

Director Graham Cartledge said: “We are really delighted at the news of the Essex street lighting win, especially as it is a stand-alone contract and it is for twice as many units as the current contract.

“We're achieving over 98.8% lights-on in north Essex and our goal is to extend this excellent service level right across the county.”

Rodney Bass, cabinet member for highways and transportation at Essex County Council, added: “One of the key reasons we selected Cartledge is because of their excellent service delivery in the north of the county and this new contract means that we can extend this to cover all of our residents.”