Council to implement early hours street light switch-off

Monmouthshire County Council is to switch off its street lights between midnight and 6am in residential areas.

Locations affected by the change will be Magor, Undy, Rogiet, Portskewett, Caerwent, Llanfoist, Llanellen, Govilion, Gilwern and Llanelly Hill. The switch off will take place from Saturday, 28th October as part of a budget saving exercise.  This is part of a wider initiative to save expenditure on street lighting, contributing to a budget saving for the council.

The policy to switch off street lights in residential areas during the early hours of the morning was approved by the council in February 2014.  It was agreed that no lights would be turned off in areas of traffic calming, pedestrian crossings or other high risk pedestrian areas.

Council street lighting officers have engaged with county councillors as well as town and community councils to determine areas where they consider street lights cannot be switched off.  Lights have already been turned off in residential areas of Abergavenny, Chepstow, Monmouth, Usk and other locations.

Monmouthshire's cabinet member responsible for the county's street lighting, Cllr Bryan Jones, said: "In previous years, we have been able to make significant savings through working more efficiently.  However, the scale of cuts in recent years means that we can't avoid making savings that could impact on the communities we serve.  I understand entirely that many people won't like the idea of streetlights being turned off but we have limited the hours when this will happen and I'm confident that we have done what we can to minimise the impact".