A CONTROVERSIAL scheme to switch off street lights to save cash has not led to an increase in accidents, a council boss said today.

A Buckinghamshire County Council chief said there was “some evidence” that extra street furniture was in fact bringing accidents down.

The council’s move to switch of 2,000 lights in rural and semi-rural areas was met with fury by some who warned it would lead to an increase in accidents.

Yet a councillor today warned the move had made some people afraid to leave their homes because the lack of lights made them feel more vulnerable to crime.

It was also revealed that the council had refused to let parish councils turn the lights back on – and residential areas could see lights switched off to save cash.

Addressing a watchdog committee roads boss Phil Stonehewer said “there has not been a worsening of the road safety record” where the first 300 lights went off in 2007.

There had been night time injury crashes at four of seven sites during the following 14 months at sections of the A4128 Hughenden Road, A413 and A40.

A further 1,300 lights were turned off last year – also on major connecting roads – and this saw night injury collisions at three of 39 sites in the following two to six months, he said.

Mr Stonehewer said while it was too early to drawn firm conclusions these results were “encouraging”.

And he said £600,000 worth of road safety features such as bollards could be “helping to reduce collisions during the day as well”.

He revealed Thames Valley Police opposed the move when first mooted – but were now supportive.

“The police said, don’t do it. Now they are saying it’s fine.”

And he told members of the council’s overview and scrutiny committee for community and environmental services: “In some areas people are driving more carefully, which is probably not a bad thing.”

Yet committee member David Meacock questioned why a speed camera was on an affected area of the A40, by Wapseys Wood, if the road was safe.

Mr Stonehewer said the road was safe. “The only way I can really answer that is through the facts and the data,” he said.

But Councillor Patricia Lindsley, member for Chesham East, said she knew of people who were “not going out after dark because the lights are switched off”.

She said: “There is such a fear of crime.”

Mr Stonehewer, group manager for strategic maintenance and casualty reduction, said he accepted her point.

But he said: “All I can reassure you is we do meet regularly every three months with the police.”

And he was backed by Councillor Alan Hill, who said: “Personally I think the fear of crime would reduce without street lighting.

”People would be more aware of what is happening. Now they don’t seem to bother, they stroll across here and everywhere.”

Councillor Bill Lidgate said: “I 100 per cent support the switch off of the lights, I was thrilled to see it.”

Referring to complaints from residents in Denham he said: “There are no incidents, nothing actually happening that can be attributed to street lights.”

The meeting was told some parish councils had asked to take responsibility for street lights that had been turned off, to turn them on again.

Yet Mr Stonehewer said this would “affect the integrity of the trial and undermine the reasons why the trial was promoted in the first place”, to save cash and cut emissions.

And he said switching off lights in residential streets was “on the table” although there were no detailed plans.

The trial is expected to save £100,000 a year for the council, which has warned energy costs have gone up by more than 100 per cent.

After three years lights could be taken out altogether.