HUNDREDS of street lights have now been switched off to cut the county’s carbon footprint.

Oxfordshire County Council began its switch-off programme to turn out the lights for five hours a night earlier this year and is close to completing the scheme to save money and cut carbon emissions.

In total, 22 stretches of 17 roads — half that number are in the Herald area — will be in darkness between 12.30am and 5.30am, but already the scheme has been controversial, winning praise from environmentalists and criticism from motorists.

More than three-quarters of the projected 284 lights are being switched off, with the county believing it will save £7,800 and 45,500kg of carbon emissions a year.

A council spokesman said parish and town councils and Thames Valley Police were consulted before the first lights were switched off in January.

He added no roundabout or T-junction lights would be switched off as part of the scheme, and there had been no accidents recorded on any of the roads during times when the lights had been switched off.

But Steve Harding, chairman of 50-strong motorcycle group H Riders, was unhappy with shutting down lights on approaches to the Berinsfield roundabout on the A4074.

He said: “There are four approaches to the roundabout and it is used throughout the night. It is going to be an accident waiting to happen.

“They need to have some lights on on the approaches. Safety first, surely.”

Ivor Burgess, a parish councillor at Adderbury, where lights are already being switched off on one of two roads named in the scheme, said: “It is a bad idea. You have to think of the safety of people who live in this area. Safety means being seen.”

AA spokesman Luke Bosdet said: “There seems to be this knee-jerk reaction to switching lights off to try to save money. Some try and make out it’s a C02 initiative, but everyone knows it is just about saving money.”

But Lois Muddimann, spokesman for Low Carbon West Oxford, said: “I think it’s a great idea. I would like to see it spread to other areas.”

Ian Hudspeth, the council’s cabinet member for transport, said: “It is important that we reduce our carbon emissions.

“We have been careful about the locations we have chosen and this represents a very small fraction of the total number of street lights in Oxfordshire.”

The council spokesman said similar schemes had already been implemented in Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Essex, and Powys in Wales.

Responding to the AA’s comments, he said the savings amounted to a four-figure sum out of a budget of “hundreds of millions of pounds”.

The 284 lights — less than one per cent of the county’s total — will be switched off at night by March 31.

Mr Hudspeth has previously stated the scheme could be extended if it is successful.

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