Fears over street light cut-backs

[Escapee]

The local community council has a resident meeting once a month where the local community police officers are also in attendance. The street lights have been disappearing on an area by area basis around here, and the subject of increased crime due to the lights going out has been discussed at these meetings.

We had a very good readers letter in our local newspaper on the subject a few weeks ago, I cant recall the exact figures but the person asked along the lines of.

Why the council were patting themselves on the back for saving a projected £750K in the next financial year by turning off street lights, when the unpaid council tax for the 2009-2010 period stood at almost £1.5M. The person who compiled the letter went on to ask the council if it would not be better to pursue the unpaid council tax then they could afford to leave on the lights.

I have not seen any reply yet from the council.

ps. I believe the police were going to ask the council to re-instate the lights in some areas due to the increase in crime