Cambridgeshire County Council, along with Northamptonshire County Council, as the Eastern Shire Counties Partnership, made a combined bid to The Department for Transport for a share of £600 million in PFI funding.

This major cash injection means that old and outdated streetlamps can be replaced over a five-year period.

The PFI credits also mean that the county's street lights, illuminated signs and bollards, will also be maintained for 25 years.

Work on the contract has already started and it is expected that work will commence in early 2010.

Cambridgeshire County Council looks after 55,000 streetlights and 3,000 illuminated signs and bollards.

Cambridgeshire county councillor Matt Bradney, Cabinet member for Growth and Infrastructure, said: "Cambridgeshire, working with Northamptonshire, has been highly successful at persuading Government to give us such a major cash boost.

"This money will enable us to replace old streetlights across the county much more quickly than we could with our normal limited finances.

"These new streetlights will improve safety in communities while also being far more efficient, helping to save us money on the county's electricity bill. As less energy will be used to power our streetlights, we will be reducing our carbon emissions and therefore doing our bit to improve our planet."

Northamptonshire received £88 million in the joint bid as a higher percentage of their lights are beyond their design life.