There has been a light at this point since 1885 and the current structure dates back to 1981.

The new lantern has a range of 6.5 nautical miles and is visible around the point, providing a beacon for Ro-Ro vessels on course for Thames Europort and Purfleet Deep as well as for all traffic up and down the river.

Recently introduced by Tideland Signal, the MLED-120 offers long life, low maintenance and high efficiency. It features a high efficiency lens specially designed to accommodate up to four LED tiers and to maximise the optical performance of Tideland's DA-65 LED array.

The DA-65 diode array consists of 30 precision, high intensity light emitting diodes mounted in a Tideland parabolic mirrored reflector and providing an even 360(degree) light source.

The lantern's power can be adjusted from 2 to 12 watts by increasing the number of tiers of LEDs to satisfy range requirements. Two switches control 256 flash characters.

In addition, the inherent properties of LEDs ensure that the effective intensity of flashing lights is maximised, while the mean time to failure for an individual LED is measured in hundreds of thousands of hours, compared to a thousand or so for incandescent lamps.

MJ Information No: 18739