VIEWS are being sought on a potential new street lighting policy for the borough, which could see roads in darkness in the early hours of the morning.

Harrow Council is trying to find cost-cutting measure to save £62m over four years and has launched a consultation this week to find out the public’s opinion on street-lighting.

It powers almost 20,000 street lights, road signs, lit bollards and beacons across the borough at a cost of around £730,000 a year.

The council has given one of four options for reducing the electricity consumed by street lighting in residential areas.

The first proposal is to decrease lighting levels with energy efficient lanterns that would reduce light levels by up to 20 per cent.

The second proposal is light trimming, which is reducing the period lights are turned on by an hour a day, with lights coming on later in the evening and switching off earlier in the morning.

The third proposal is light dimming, which is to dim lights by up to 50 per cent during the quietest period of the night, from midnight to 4am. The final proposal is part night-lighting, which means turning the lights off completely during the early hours of the morning, for instance from 2am to 4am.

Councillor Phillip O’Dell, the council’s portfolio holder for environment and community safety, said: “As any Harrow household will know, energy bills are continuing to rise at a time when we need to keep a tight rein on our spending. We are getting less funding from Government but inflation is pushing our bills up, while the state of the economy is also increasing demand for many of our services.

“There are options for making some major savings on the cost of street lights but we need to balance this against protecting the safety of our residents. A number of councils across the country are changing the way they light their streets so we are looking at how successful they have been.

“We also want to know what residents think, and we want their help to agree a new policy that cuts costs and reduces pollution, without compromising safety.

“There is the potential to save over £100,000 a year, money that could be better spent on key front-line services. Tell us what you think.”

The consultation runs until the end of December and is available on the council website at www.harrow.gov.uk/streetlighting Hard copies are available in libraries.