MORE than £81,000 of taxpayers' cash has been saved under Worcestershire County Council's controversial street light switch-off, it has emerged.

It has been revealed that the scheme to black out streets from midnight to 6am, which has moved into five parts of the county so far, has saved £77,000 in energy bills and £4,000 from carbon emission charges.

Since April last year workers have been ripping out 1,000 street lights per month to replace them with special dimmers which go out from midnight to 6am.

It is targeting 17,000 street lamps within two years and after starting in Redditch lights have been converted in Droitwich and Bromsgrove among others.

So far 7,600 lights have been converted.

During a recent debate at County Hall, a plea by some councillors to halt the project was refused.

Redditch Labour Councillor Joe Baker, who represents Greenlands, said: "Without sounding like a broken record can Councillor John Smith (the cabinet member for highways) reassure me that he will 'see the light', and open his eyes on this issue and how it is already affecting people in the county?"

He told the chamber "gangs gathering" in the streets was now a more common sight in darkened areas, and residents had called him thinking the street lights were broken.

"An increasing number of people now feel unsafe - they are thinking the lights are broken and they're not," he said.

"I believe you've failed to see the impact this policy has had on our communities, especially the most vulnerable."

Cllr Smith said: "We have had very little evidence that switching them off has had any affect at all."

He told the chamber the claims were "surprising", insisting the police were consulted before the project launched.

Later in the meeting he was encouraged to suspend the project while outlining the latest data on it.

Councillor Richard Udall said: "This policy is already causing anxiety and distress - will he consider suspending the programme and look at using new cutting-edge lighting instead?"

Cllr Smith replied: "No, I won't be doing that. We are progressing with the latest technology and a lot of LED lights are being installed.

"We need to save money and carbon emission charges, and this is helping us do that."

By the end of the project two out of three lights in residential areas will be switched off between midnight and 6am, taking in 17,000 bulbs in total.

The move is aimed at saving £600,000 per year in electricity costs by 2016, from a total budget of £2.4 million towards for lights and illuminated signs.