TENDRING will be left in the dark through the winter after a decision on ending the controversial streetlight blackout was delayed.

Most streetlights are turned off across the county between midnight and 5am by Essex County Council in a money-saving scheme.

Tendring Council’s opposition Labour group launched plans for the district council to take action and end the blackout.

Labour leader Ivan Henderson asked for the council to pay out £127,000 to have the lights switched back on in Tendring at a full council meeting on Tuesday.

But no decision was made on the night, with council chairman Val Guglielmi deferring it to the council’s cabinet.

It means a final decision cannot be made until February – scuppering any chance of getting Tendring’s lights back on over the winter.

A Labour motion to force an immediate decision was defeated by a vote of 31 to 26.

More than 50 members of the public attended the meeting.

There was uproar over the decision.The next cabinet meeting is on December 12.

The cabinet will make a decision on the streetlights motion and it will be brought back to the full council to be rubber-stamped in February.

Read the full story in the Clacton Gazette, out now.