Switching off street lights 'does not lead to more crime'

About 12,500 of the 18,900 lights maintained by Shropshire Council are being or have been converted to "part-night" lighting in an ongoing scheme.

Motoring and pedestrian groups have raised concerns about councils switching off their lights at night to save money, with research suggesting around a third are being turned off.

But research published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health based on 14 years of data from 62 local authorities across England and Wales found there was no evidence of an association between reduced street lighting and increased crime or traffic accidents.

AA president Edmund King said he was "extremely surprised" at the results.

"Our own analysis of inquest findings uncovered six road deaths from 2009 to 2013 where coroners said the switching off of street lights had been a contributory factor," he said.

"Police crash investigators said the drivers had little or no chance of avoiding the collisions.

"At the same time, Department for Transport statistics show that significant reductions in night-time accidents along roads with lighting have been stunted on unlit town and city streets."

The study was led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in partnership with UCL (University College London).

To assess crime, they looked at data from 2010 to 2013 to analyse how many crimes took placeand what types of street lighting was used. They focused on offences likely to occur at night, including burglary, robbery, violence and sexual assault. Overall, there was no evidence of an association between reduced street lighting and increased crime.

They also examined what type of street lighting was used and the number of traffic collisions that happened at night relative to the day.They found no evidence of a link between reduced street lighting and night-time collisions.