U-turn on plans to change street lighting at night

Southend City Council has halted plans to change its street lighting schedule

A council has scrapped plans to dim its street lighting for longer at night after safety concerns were raised.

Southend Council had proposed increasing the number of hours it was running its lights at lowered capacity between 22:00 GMT and 05:00.

The measure, in the authority's draft budget, would have saved about £25,000 a year.

Residents and councillors voiced opposition to the plan which has been halted.

Labour's Stephen George, leader of the council, said: "Residents and fellow councillors have raised concerns about safety and it is clear this is a very important issue for many people who live and work in Southend.

"We value our residents safety and the cabinet have duly listened to the public and their concerns on this matter, and we have agreed that we will remove this proposed saving from the budget and seek the saving elsewhere."

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, in its revised draft budget the council, which has a £7.3m deficit, rejected turning the lights fully on saying it would cost £500,000 to do so.

Lights in Southend have been dipped since 2015.

Tony Cox, leader of the Conservative Group, said: "I don’t think this is what people want. I don’t agree with the £500,000 figure.

"That’s not what I and other members have been told. They are giving conflicting amounts on the cost."

Mr Cox added: "All I am asking for is they come clean and tell us exactly what is what."

The proposal was to dim 90% of the city's lights on a "revised sliding scale" between 22:00 and 05:00.

They would have been reduced to just 30% brightness between 01:00 and 05:00, rather than the current 02:00 to 05:00 at that level.