Council cools on street lights switch-off

A plan to switch off street lighting in Worcestershire has been postponed after the county council found it would cost more money than it would save.

The authority currently pays £2m a year to run 52,000 street lights.

But a council report has revealed that to reduce that bill by £600,000 a year it would need to invest £3.4m first.

It said that would pay for turning off some street lights from midnight, dimming others and using 8,000 energy-efficient bulbs.

The authority said it would revisit the plan next year but it would need to be "much cheaper" to implement it.

Councillor John Smith, cabinet member for highways and the environment, told the BBC: "The up and coming thing is solar lights and using LEDs but they are expensive at this time, so we are hopeful that as technology moves on we can look at plans again.

"We have put them on hold and appointed a scrutiny committee to look at all the options to report back by the end of the year."