ARE the lights about to go off on your street?

Bradford Council is poised to join the one-in-three local authorities which turn off some of their street lights in the early hours to save cash.

But motoring group The AA has urged the authority to avoid plunging higher-speed roads into darkness, warning the move could prove fatal.

The changes, due to start in the New Year, would see about 6,000 street lights - roughly one in ten - turned off between midnight and 5.30am.

It is budgeted to save the authority £110,000 over the next two years.

Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, executive member for highways, said: “We’ve previously done some limited overnight dimming of lights and this is the next step on from that.

“We’ve not had any complaints in areas where lights have been dimmed and we’ll be taking great care as we roll out the overnight switch-off where it’s deemed safe and appropriate to do so. “

But AA spokesman Luke Bosdet said: “We would strongly urge them not to turn lights off on roads of 40mph or faster.

“There have been 11 people killed since 2009 on roads where street lights have been switched off by councils.

“All 11 of these have been confirmed at inquests, not a single driver has been prosecuted and the police investigations and coroners have said that the drivers had little or no time to react when they came across a pedestrian in the road at that speed.”

Bradford Council officers are currently starting the process of selecting the streets where the lights will be switched off after midnight.

A spokesman for the authority said: “The first stage of this project is to use sophisticated mapping software to determine what street lights can be switched off for a time without adversely affecting people’s lives.

“This involves using crime data from the police and road accident data as well as identifying buildings which have 24-hour use such as health centres, economic and social sites to make sure that necessary lights stay on all night.

“Once this is complete, we will make site visits to confirm the accuracy of our information before identifying which street lights in which Bradford Council ward can be safely switched off from 12am to 5.30am.

“After speaking with ward councillors about these proposals we will publish them on Bradford Council’s website to inform the public of our intentions.”

West Yorkshire Police will be consulted on the detailed plans.

Mark Burns-Williamson, West Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, said: “As we are all too aware, Bradford Council, along with a host of other organisations like the police, are having to deal with savage cuts to their budgets and hard choices do have to be made.

“That being said, Bradford Council will link in with my office and the police to ensure any crime or community safety issues are flagged and dealt with appropriately.”

Although the plan formed part of the ruling Labour group’s budget proposals this year, both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are backing the move.

Conservative group leader, Councillor Simon Cooke, said: “I think actually this makes a lot of sense.”

Cllr Cooke said ward councillors would have to be closely involved in helping to select the streets as they would know the areas well.

He gave the example of Shay Lane, Wilsden, in his Bingley Rural ward as a road which should not have its lights turned off, “even though it seems rural”, because people used it to walk back to their homes.

He said: “It’s a road that goes from the main road down to a mill conversion and some new housing.”

Liberal Democrat group leader, Councillor Jeanette Sunderland, said other councils had decided to switch off street lights “years ago” and questioned why Bradford had until now been reluctant to follow suit.

She said as long as street lights were turned off in areas where pedestrians didn’t walk, she couldn’t see the harm.

She said: “There are lots of places across the city where people don’t walk at night, where we could reasonably be expected to turn off street lights.

“I would rather have a road, unused by pedestrians at night, not lit than have to cut children’s services.”