By DAVID DERBYSHIRE

Last updated at 13:57 11 February 2008

Thousands of street lamps in suburban areas are being switched off after midnight.

The blackouts are being imposed by councils to cut energy bills and meet climate change targets.

Buckinghamshire is carrying out one of the most radical trials of the new approach.

More than 1,700 lights, which illuminate 25 miles of roads, will soon be switched off completely.

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The council claims the scheme will save £100,000 and nearly 600 tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year.

But the Government-backed blackouts have provoked anger from police leaders and motoring organisations.

Derek Barnett, of the Police Superintendents' Association, said: "Good street lighting reduces crime, it makes the public feel safe and it reduces the risk of road traffic accidents.

"I would need to feel confident that the environmental savings were being balanced against the impact on local crime."

The latest move is the most draconian rationing of street lighting since the power cuts of the 1970s.

The trials will be extended to more areas - including rural A-roads - in the next few weeks.

If these tests prove successful, all street lamps could be routinely turned off between midnight and 5am, a Daily Mail investigation has revealed.

But those who live in the blackout zones established so far have given the experiment the thumbs-down.

In Hampshire, the county council last month pulled the plug on street lighting after midnight for 1,000 residents.

One of those affected, Judith Giles, said: "It is now pitch black after midnight.

The big concern is that it will encourage vandalism and burglary.

"For many people, particularly those who live on their own, it is very intimidating."

Mrs Giles, 46, who lives in Romsey's leafy Fishlake Meadows estate, added: "It is a criminals' haven."

Motoring organisations have also warned that the changes could increase the number of road accidents.

Edmund King, the president of the AA, said: "There is concern that some local authorities appear to be doing this to save money, rather than to save the environment.

"In terms of road accidents, we have to be sure that this won't lead to more deaths and injuries on the roads, particularly for cyclists and pedestrians who are difficult to see at the best of times.

"The statistical evidence shows that there are more fatal and serious accidents when roads are unlit.

"Local authorities should be looking at more environmentally friendly lighting technology."

But Paul Bettison, chairman of the Local Government Association, which represents councils, denied suggestions that the blackouts could put lives at risk.

"Street lighting costs the council taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds a year," he said.

"Councils want to provide value for money to local people and it is right that they look at ways of lighting the streets that are less expensive.

"The safety of the streets and local people must be at the heart of everything a council does."

The blackouts are being introduced in suburban and rural areas and it is not thought that city centres and major roads will ever be affected.

Town hall chiefs claim that the policy could halve street lighting bills, as a typical sodium street lamp costs between £20 and £40 a year to run. Many councils have at least 100,000 lights.

However, the cost of converting street lights to operate on the new system might outweigh the advantages.

Cheshire council abandoned plans for blackouts after discovering it costs at least £100 to add a timer to each lamp.

Other areas taking part in blackout trials include Maldon and Uttlesford in Essex.

Locals there complain that vandalism backing of local police and fire chiefs, the King Street residents forced the council to turn the lights back on.

But Essex County Council insisted that vandalism and petty crime had not increased since it started the trials a year ago.

A spokesman said: "There is an argument that cutting street lights reduces some types of crime because groups of people no longer like hanging around street corners if it is dark."

Trials are also taking place in Gloucestershire, while Hertfordshire is introducing six-month blackouts later in the year.

Cornwall and Devon are considering similar schemes.

Some local authorities are going even further - and scrapping street lights in the evenings as well as the early hours of the morning.

Last year, Buckinghamshire council turned off all lights on the A4128 - a busy rural road running from High Wycombe to Hughenden Valley.

Paul Cawte, chairman of the village residents' association, said: "You can't see your hand in front of your face.

"We've heard of some people having to walk on the road to follow the white line because they can't see the path. It is clearly dangerous."

Return of the blackout

When the lights first went out, residents simply assumed that they were the victims of a power cut.

But when every street lamp shut down at midnight for the second time, they began to suspect that something else was happening.

It turned out that Hampshire County Council was testing the effects of a blackout on 300 homes in the Fishlake Meadows estate in Romsey.

Officials wanted to see how the locals would react - and whether the darkness would attract vandals and burglars.

"It is absolutely pitch black," said resident Judith Giles, 46. "We are more concerned about crime than anything else."

She added: "This is a very middle-class residential area. There are quite a few older people here and they are feeling insecure."

A spokesman for the council said the trial would cut the electricity bill for the estate's lights by at least a third.

She admitted the decision not to warn residents beforehand was deliberate.

"We did not want any preconceived ideas about turning off the lights," she said.