CHANGING the lights at a police building in Carmarthenshire is to cost nearly £500,000 – a figure described as “strikingly large” at a public meeting.

The contract for the new lighting system at Dyfed-Powys Police’s strategic command centre at Llangunnor, near Carmarthen, was approved by police and crime commissioner Dafydd Llywelyn.

Mr Llywelyn spoke about it when asked at a meeting of the Dyfed Powys police and crime panel, which scrutinises his role, on May 20.

Panel vice-chairman, Cllr Keith Evans, said he was “a bit disturbed” looking at the lighting cost, which was detailed in a report, and asked Mr Llywelyn if he could clarify his role in confirming the expenditure.

The report said the lighting system at the strategic command centre, which was built 15 years ago and – according to the architects involved – cost £6.4m and was hard to maintain due to the redundancy of the fittings and the unavailability of parts.

It is to be replaced with LED lighting and controls which have heat-mapping technology, meaning they can dim when people aren’t around and save energy. External lights will also be replaced.

The report said that following an evaluation process Dyfed-Powys Police’s estates department recommended a £483,110 contract should be awarded to Swansea-based John Weaver (Contractors) Ltd along with a 15% contingency, if required, to an overall value of £555,576.

The Plaid Cymru commissioner said everything was done within governance frameworks and, in answer to a point raised by Cllr Evans, said there was a degree of “rubber-stamping” by him in some instances.

He added modernising the lighting system did come “at a significant cost”.

Lay panel chairman Professor Ian Roffe said the strategic command centre was, in his view, the best value public building ever built in Wales – until he saw the lighting replacement cost. “I thought it was strikingly large,” he said.