Council turns off TWO THIRDS of its street lamps to save £200,000 a year on power bills

Daily Mail September 18, 2008

A cash-strapped council has been accused of recreating wartime blackouts after switching off most of its streetlights during the night.

Over 60 years after people in the UK last shut down their lights to confuse German pilots, Powys County Council has been thrown into darkness yet again.

The council has decided to turn off 64 per cent of its street lamps to try and save a total of £225,000 a year.

Powys towns, including Hay on Wye (pictured), will fall into darkness after the local council decided to turn of 64 per cent of the county's street lamps

Baffled families have slammed the scheme, with one pensioner who lived through the last war-time blackouts branding the council concept 'completely ridiculous'.

The scheme means two out of every three bulbs will go dead and its 14,000 working lights will be slashed to just 5,000.

Work started turning off the street lamps last week but is expected to take one and half months to complete.

Concerned: Local MP Lembit Opik worries the blackout will lead to an increase in accidents and crime

Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik, who represents Powys within his Montgomeryshire constituency, said he was concerned how the switch-off had been rolled out.

Referencing the famous statement made by British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Gray on the eve of World War I, Mr Opik said: 'It is true that the lamps are going out all over Powys and a great darkness has descended over the streets and the highways.

'While I agree with reducing carbon emissions and pollution this has got to be done sensibly, we don't want accidents to increase and crime to spread in the darkness.

'I know that elderly people are particularly concerned they will not be able to see their way and I will be talking to the council and residents to ensure a common sense approach is taken to this rather dramatic initiative.

'I think we are all slightly in the dark over this but I hope to be able to shed some light on it shortly.'

Dennis Cleaton, 75, who lives in Victoria Road, Llandrindod Wells in Wales, said he expected a rise in crime with some kind of accident inevitable.

He said: 'I have been here for ten years and it's now completely pitch black when I go out of the door at night now.

'I clearly remember the blackouts and they were very frightening, you expect these things to happen in war-time but in modern times it is ridiculous.

'Everyone is furious about it because nobody has had the manners to talk it over with us.

'These people are just building up more problems and local issues instead of solving them.

'I think this is the most stupid thing the council has ever done and I - and a lot of other people - are questioning the intelligence of them.

'I was a councillor in Hampshire myself for 16 years so I know better than most the kind of pressures that councils are under.

'But the council has gone mad and opened the door to more crime at night, more danger for road users of all kinds and a new higher accident rate in Powys.

'My road is used by dozens of children walking to Llandrindod High School, as well as coaches which drop off other pupils and there is also an old peoples' home nearby.

'I am really frightened that without a light, during the dark winter mornings and evenings, someone will be hurt or even killed.'

The council said it took the decision to turn off the lights in an effort to manage its power budget following massive price increases.

Council spokesman Gwilym Evans said the switch off would also cut the authority's carbon footprint by up to 1,100 tonnes a year and reduce night sky pollution.

But he did admit the council would be reviewing any ill-effects the scheme might create.

He said: 'The council is responsible for more than 14,000 street lights on county roads and is facing huge increases in energy costs at a time when budgets are under increasing pressure.

'We had considered moving to part-night lighting and other measures to tackle the budget problem but the scale of energy cost increases and time required to carry out the work has meant a taking a more radical approach.

'We decided that the only way to keep within budget with the scale of increases was to switch off the majority of lights in some areas. That work has now started.

'Sensitive areas such as those covered by CCTV, pedestrian and zebra crossings, traffic calming measures, near hospitals, medical centres and sheltered housing or with known problems will not be affected.

'We realise that the decision will cause some concern but the alternative is to pass the increased cost onto the council taxpayer.'

The authority added the price of keeping the lights running would have been equivalent to a one per cent rise on council tax bills.

Notices have now been put on the lights that are now dead, telling homeowners they are not broken, just switched off.