Thousands of street lamps in the UK are being switched off after midnight in a bid to cut energy bills and meet climate change targets. It has been said that a council can save up to £100,000 a year by switching off street lights, and reduce carbon emissions by up to 600 tonnes per year.

However there has been much backlash at the new scheme – a Police leader has said that good street lighting reduces crime and helps the public to feel safe whilst also reducing the risk of road accidents therefore although switching off the lights may be great for en environment, a close eye needs to be kept on local crime and accident rates to ensure that the scheme does not have a detrimental effect on the local community.

It is not the first time that such schemes have been proposed in the UK. Hampshire County Council last month cancelled their street lighting switch-off scheme after residents complained that it was encouraging vandalism and burglary.

Council representatives have denied that switching off the lights between midnight and 5am could put lives at risk. They have pointed out that street lighting costs taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds each year and councils are always on the lookout for ways to provide better value for money.

It has been suggested that instead of looking at draconian blackout measures, councils should be looking to replace their streetlamps with a more environmentally friendly option. Currently, a standard sodium street lamp costs between £30 and £40 a year to run with many councils having at least 100,000 lights to deal with. Adding a timer to the lights costs about £100 and some believe this is not the most cost effective scheme – instead, councils should perhaps follow Toronto’s example where street light bulbs are being replaced with LEDs.

LEDs are said to use less electricity than a standard bulb, so will help cut down on energy costs, whilst emitting the same amount of light. LEDs also have a life-span of around 10 years compared to an average bulb’s lifespan of just two years. This also means that LEDs have a smaller carbon footprint that their sodium equivalents.

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