Anger over reinstated street light delay in village

Residents of a Nottinghamshire village left without early morning street lighting for more than 18 months are angry it has not been reinstated.

The previous Conservative-led county council turned off the lights in Radcliffe-on-Trent between midnight and 05:30 GMT in February 2012.

The Labour group promised to reverse the policy when it took control in May.

The authority said there was a process to follow and would need petitions from parish councils to make the change.

David Griffin, Radcliffe's Neighbourhood Watch chairman, said the process was too bureaucratic for a simple request.

"What really annoys me is that Labour said that if they got into power part of their manifesto would be to switch the street lights back on," Mr Griffin said.

"Now we've got to get petitions for each street and send these petitions to the parish councils, who will send them to Nottinghamshire County Council and they'll make a decision on whether we can have the lights on.

"We all want to live in a village that's free from crime and more importantly free from the fear of crime."

Mr Griffin added that since the lights have been switched off cars have been damaged and homes burgled.

The Labour-run county council said it would turn lights back on where communities requested it, and save energy by converting lights to dimmable LEDs when they were due to be replaced.

Alan Rhodes, Leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, said: "It's quite a straightforward process, there's nothing particularly difficult about it.

"Now if the parish council aren't prepared to do that then we need a petition from residents to make this happen, but we can't act on the basis of an email from one individual."

Since 2010, the county council had altered more than 90,000 lights to save £1.25m a year in electricity costs.