Council reviewing ‘pretty grim’ policy to turn streetlights off at night

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.

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, then its energy bill for street lighting would have been more than £13million rather than £3million.

Speaking in 2019, Coun 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.”

Lincolnshire County Council have been contacted for further details.