Street lights could be back on all night throughout Warwickshire

In its budget for 2014-15 set at Shire Hall on Thursday last week (see page 4), Warwickshire’s Conservative-led county council set aside £ 4 million towards replacing the area’s street lights with new LED technology.

The council, supported by all of Warwickshire’s MPs, has submitted a bid to the Government’s Local Highways Challenge Fund for an extra £20 million in order to carry out the work across the county.

Two years ago the council introduced a part night street lighting policy as it sought to make significant savings due to the financial pressures placed on all authorities as a result of Government austerity measures.

Cllr Peter Butlin, portfolio holder for transport and highways at Warwickshire County Council, said:

“The part-night street lighting policy was a necessary step two years ago as the council sought to make £92m worth of savings.

“I have always stated that if the technology and money was available we would look again at our nighttime street lighting policy.

“If we are successful with this bid we can do just that as well as saving taxpayers money in the long run and cutting our CO2 emissions even further.”

When the policy was implemented, concerns were raised that it would lead to an increase in crime and traffic accidents.

But statistics have shown that accident and crime levels have fallen.

Cllr Izzi Seccombe, leader of Warwickshire County Council said: The council and all of our Warwickshire MPs have always listened to local residents and sought to do the very best to address their concerns.

“We know that LED energy could achieve £1m savings per year.

“This is an opportunity for us to be ahead of many other authorities, at relatively low cost to the people we represent.”