The latest tranche of roads in Epsom and Ewell to have street lights turned out between midnight and 5am has been announced by the county council.
The list of 66 roads across the borough has been published on the council’s website, with a switch-off date confirmed for July 26.
Surrey County Council voted to turn off 44,000 of the county’s 89,000 street lights to save an estimated £210,000 per year.
In May, its Conservative cabinet approved a paper allowing the county’s 11 borough and district councils to request for lights in their area to be excluded from the part-night lighting scheme, but the councils would have to foot the energy bill and cough up for any increases in carbon tax.
The latest announcement comes nearly a month after it emerged that thefts from motor vehicles had ‘quadrupled’ since Epsom and Ewell was plunged into natural darkness in the early hours of the morning from February.
In the four months after the switch-off there were 195 reported thefts from motor vehicles in the borough – about four times the number of offences (48) in the same period last year, according to figures obtained by Neighbourhood Police Inspector Jackie Elkins.
Ewell Court, Auriol & Cuddington council at county level Eber Kington told the Epsom Guardian that residents had repeatedly raised the switch-off as a “major concern”. He described the figures as “shocking”.
Inspector Elkins urged residents to report thefts from vehicles, and in an email to Cllr Kington, wrote: “Vehicle crime is one of my team’s priorities due to the volume, but without specific times, days or locations, and the fact that it’s spread across the borough, it’s difficult to target.”
Cllr Kington’s described the Tory cabinet’s devolution of control over part-night street lighting as “an abdication of their duty and responsibility to keep people safe”.
He added: “We’re reaping the results of a bad policy.”
From December: Surrey County Council announces streetlights to be turned off in Epsom and Ewell
Explaining the initial decision to turn the lights off, a county council spokesman said in December: “Due to the ever-increasing demand for our services coupled with a reduction in government funding, we will be switching off streetlights in quiet areas with low amounts of traffic in the early hours of the morning.”
The government has cut grants to the county council by £170million since 2010.
To see if your road is on the list to have street lights turned off, visit https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0015/134205/PNL-Programme-Phase-4-Epsom-and-Ewell.pdf
Got a story? Get in touch at craig.richard@newsquest.co.uk
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