County throws light on timing of cost-cutting street lamp switch-off

Villages to get their lights turned off first include Great and Little Longstone, where the change will come into effect from July.

Lights in Hope and Bamford will be turned off between midnight and 5.30am from February 2013, those in Bakewell will be switched off in March, and the following month lights will be turned off in Castleton and Hathersage.

By the end of May next year, a total of 68 areas will have some streetlights switched off.

The hours of darkness each night are expected to help save £400,000 a year on energy bills and an estimated 2,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide emissions every year.

Coun Simon Spencer said: “We won’t switch off all street lights but as most people are in bed between midnight and 5.30am we believe some lighting isn’t needed.”

Over the next four years, the county council expects to turn off around 40,000 of its 89,000 street lights between midnight and 5.30am and switch off a further 900 permanently.

Public consultations into the council’s plan are already under way.

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