Plans to switch off street lights in Norwich have been scaled back.

More than 1,000 Norwich street lights which were earmarked to be switched off for part of the night have been spared – but campaigners say it is unfair that entire city estates will still be plunged into darkness.

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Norfolk County Council unveiled its proposals a year ago to switch off up to 27,000 Norfolk street lights, including around 7,300 in Norwich, between midnight and 5am.

While street lights in places such as Wymondham have already been changed, it emerged today that work is set to start on the switch-off in Norwich in just two months.

That means the clock is ticking for people who want to make the case for their streets to stay lit, although council bosses have already decided not to go through with the partial switch-off within the inner ring road.

A number of other streets have also been identified around the city where the lights will stay on, cutting the number which will go off to 5,900.

Campaigners have seized on the reduction as evidence the strategy was flawed and say street lights should stay on in more of the city’s streets.

The county council, which hopes to save £167,000 a year and cut carbon emissions through the scheme, says those streets where the lights will stay on have been spared because they have been compared against a list of exemptions.

The list of exemptions include:
• Streets with CCTV cameras, traffic-calming measures or water

• Where▪ lights have been put in specifically to prevent accidents

• Roads with high traffic flow

• Places which need high security - such as banks and jewellers

• Streets where police say crime could be increased as a result of lights going off, or where reducing crime will be affected.

John Birchall, spokesman for Norfolk County Council, said: “Our initial work identifying streets likely to be suitable found very few within the inner ring road.

“It has therefore been decided that no streets within the inner ring road will be converted to partial night lighting.

“The inner ring is the circuit along Queen’s Road, Chapelfield South, Grapes Hill, Barn Road, St Crispins Rd, Barrack Street, Riverside Road, Riverside, Koblenz Avenue, King Street, Bracondale.

“Outside this area there are still a number of streets that have already been excluded.”

Consultation is set to get under way next week on an initial list of the lights which will still be switched off, but aimed at ‘stakeholders’ such as city and county councillors, the police and the safer neighbourhood teams, rather than the general public.

Mr Birchall said: “As we have elsewhere, in Norwich we are conducting a two-stage consultation. At this stage we are consulting stakeholders on the initial list, but this is likely to change given their input. For this reason, we will not be publishing the initial list more widely, since it could be misleading.

“Once this initial list has been refined with the benefit of local member input, the second round of consultation will involve residents in the streets proposed for part night lighting.

“People living on streets where the change is proposed will be contacted before any change takes place and can raise any issues at that stage.

“People who believe their street has been wrongly listed will need to show reasons why their street should be exempt and an exception from council policy.

“Requests for additional exemptions will be considered by the director of environment, transport and development and the cabinet member for travel and transport before work takes place.”

But Bert Bremner, Labour city and county councillor, said: “There are some streets where they have changed their minds, but there are still whole estates, such as West Earlham, which will be blacked out.

“We are not a little town or village and people are really going to be affected by this. It is quite frightening. It will save peanuts and could end up forcing people into cars because they are worried about walking home in dark streets.

“The city centre must be an example for the rest of Norwich and I think we could use the arguments for not turning them off there in every street.”

But Graham Plant, cabinet member for travel and transport, said the decision to scale back the switch off showed the council had listened to concerns.

He said: “We have been going through a consultation process for the past year and what’s coming out now is the areas we have looked at and decided not to part switch off the lights.

“In the inner ring road, after applying the exemptions there were only a few streets which we were still looking at, It would have seen street lights part switched off here and there.

“It would only have been about 10 streets and we thought it just didn’t seem worthwhile as it would not save us much in terms of the green agenda.

“This is not just about who has lights turned off, it’s about the green agenda in reducing carbon emissions.”

• What do you think of street lights being switched off between midnight and 5am? Write to Evening News Letters, Prospect House, Rouen Road, Norwich NR1 1RE or email eveningnewsletters@archant.co.uk