Campaigners welcome partial success in streetlights campaign

Hinckley and Bosworth Liberal Democrat councillors who have been fighting to stop streetlights being turned off have welcomed a partial success in their campaign.

Having already switched off a number of lights during the night, the Conservative-run County Council announced plans to cut a further £1 million from the street lighting budget. This led to concerns that some lights would be switched off altogether and people returning home from work on winter nights would have to travel home in the dark.

Lib Dem councillors in Leicestershire collected several thousand signatures calling for the £1 million savings to be made by investing some of the Council's £100m reserves in efficient technology, such as LED lighting. This would save money on energy bills without having to switch lights out.

They have welcomed new proposals from the Council to invest reserves and government grant money into green technology that also ruled out the mass switching off of street lights in Leicestershire.

County Councillor Michael Mullaney Lib Dem parliamentary spokesman for Bosworth said "I welcome the news that public pressure has forced Conservative County bosses to finally rule out proposals that would have turned many of our streetlights off altogether.

"I welcome the fact that they are now considering our proposals, to convert the streetlights to LEDs that would both save money in the long run through energy efficiency and allow lights to be kept on.

"Speaking to people locally there is a fear of crime increasing and people mentioned particular incidents that had happened, theft from cars on dark drives, shed break ins etc on dark residential street. In Nuneaton there was a 40% increase in burglaries after the switching off of the streetlights.

"We do remain concerned about the ongoing policy off turning off most streetlights at night that leave many local streets pitch black and is a particular concern to people who work night shifts or start work in the early hours and who have to go to or from work in the pitch black."