'Let there be lights': Council reviewing ‘pretty grim’ policy to turn streetlights off at night
Towns and villages could find it easier to turn streetlights back on at night after years of complaints.
Lincolnshire County Council switches around two-thirds of its lights off between midnight and 6am in an effort to save money.
District and parish councils are charged £300 per bulb they wanted to turn back on during this time.
Reform have said they are reviewing the policy, which a leader described as “pretty grim”.
Councillor Danny Brookes, the Reform executive for the environment, has advocated for years that lights are turned back on in his Skegness constituency.
When asked at the environment committee last week whether this would happen, he said the policy was being reviewed.
“The former administration had a policy which was pretty grim for any local town or parish who wanted to put them back on,” he said.
“It was prohibitive to put lights back on. The policy is being revisited to ensure it’s cost neutral to this council.
“Councils would have to pay to put them back on.”
The policy was implemented by the Conservative council administration in 2016, and only four streetlights have been turned back on since then.
A statement later issued by Councillor Danny Brookes, says: “I campaigned on this matter and we are working hard to get it actioned.
“What we are discussing are measures that will make the reinstatement of streetlights cheaper.
“We are also looking at shifting the decision to a more local level at town or parish council level instead of it being a blanket policy for the whole of the county LCC is responsible for.
“These discussions are currently ongoing and I hope we will have something more concrete on these changes at some point in the New Year.”
The new policy would need to go through several committees before it was approved.
The county council has previously said that dimming or turning off lights at night has saved millions of pounds, particularly with rising energy costs.
It claimed in 2023 that if it had been using the same amount of energy as 2016, than its energy bill for street lighting would have been more than £13million rather than £3million.
Speaking in 2019, Cllr Brookes said that the lack of street lighting was putting tourists and locals at risk in Skegness.
“I believe that nobody’s going to be feeling safe in that area,” he said at the time.
“You feel safe until you get to half past 11 when you’ve got to start running to make sure you’re home before the lights go out.”