CRIME will increase if a council presses ahead with plans to turn off street lights and dim others, a councillor has claimed.

Durham County Council’s Labour cabinet today (Wednesday, November 20) agreed a new street lighting policy which includes removing lights from some rural areas and dimming lights overnight elsewhere.

Dimming would be by a quarter between 10am and midnight and by half between midnight and 5am – levels said to be imperceptible to the human eye.

Also, illuminated signs would be replaced with those reflecting vehicle headlights.

Council chiefs say the changes would save £24m over the next 25 years, rising to £55m when inflation is taken into account.

But they also stress that road safety is a top priority, no lights in residential areas will be removed and any removals elsewhere would be subject to local consultation with county, town and parish councillors.

However, independent councillor John Shuttleworth said the policy discriminated against rural areas and predicted crime would increase as the lights went out.

Parts of his Weardale ward have been designated an E1 zone, where the general presumption under the new policy is street lighting should not be provided, due to light pollution and loss of amenity, unless there is an “overriding road safety issue which cannot be overcome by other means”.

Speaking during today’s County Hall debate, Coun Shuttleworth challenged the council’s cabinet to justify the assumption.

Coun Brian Stephens, the cabinet member for neighbourhoods and local partnerships, said lights would be provided if road safety issues could not be overcome.

Coun Lucy Hovvels, cabinet member for safer and healthier communities, said lights would only be removed where it was safe to do so, but street lights would not make a difference to crime levels.

In removing and dimming lights, Durham is following the lead of many councils around the country.

Lights have already been turned off in the Harrogate, Knaresborough and Scarborough areas and areas Hambleton and Richmondshire could follow.

Dimming, which began in areas of Durham some time ago, has also taken place in Darlington, Stockton and Middlesbrough.