THE A127 in Southend is to get low energy street lights, while the rest of the dual carriageway is plunged into darkness in Essex.

Southend Council contractors will be replacing the lights between Kent Elms and Cuckoo Corner with LED bulbs, which will mean the road will be reduced to a single lane in both directions from 8pm to 4am for five nights starting from tonight.

It is the latest stage of a £13.5million project to replace all 14,000 of the borough’s lamps with the low-energy bulbs.

But while Southend has its lights upgraded, the rest of the county which is governed by Essex County Council, is plunged in to darkness from 1am to 5am in the authority’s hugely unpopular “part-night” lighting scheme, designed to save cash.

Independent Martin Terry, who is responsible for transport at Southend Council, said: “I am delighted to see the work progressing. The feedback I have had is that people are very happy in Southend with my efforts, with the leader’s support, to continue with this scheme, whereas people remain very angry about the lights being turned off in greater Essex.

“ I believe turning the lights off is totally wrong for both community safety and equally for highways safety, especially with the dark nights in the dead of winter.

“I find it hard to understand how Essex CC, as a member of the Safer Essex Roads Partnership, could ever have thought this was a good idea. I will always oppose switch-offs wherever my work takes me.”

The remaining section of the A127 between the Borough boundary and Kent Elms will be upgraded to LEDs before the end of March.

The project, which started in 2014, will be completed in 2018.

The authority has got a loan from the Green Investment Bank, plus funding from the Government, both of which almost completely fund the scheme.

The authority says the low-energy streetlights will pay for themselves within their lifetime through energy saving, and they can provide 100,000 hours of light, compared with just 15,000 hours for standard bulbs.

Mr Terry, who represents Thorpe, said: “We’re proud to be delivering this exciting project and ask local residents and road-users to bear with us while we carry out these necessary works.”

County Hall hit back at the criticism of its light-switch off scheme, which affects around 70 per cent of the county.

Tory Eddie Johnson, who is responsible for highways delivery at County Hall, said: “Public safety remains at the absolute heart of what we are doing and we will continue to work with Essex Police to monitor any patterns of crime, anti-social behaviour and road collisions that could be linked to part night lighting across the county.
"It should be noted that an independent report conducted nationally concluded that there is no evidence that part night lighting has led to an increase in crime or traffic collisions.
 
“The policy of part night lighting delivers annual savings of £1.4million; money which the Council has been able to spend elsewhere on essential highways services. 
 
“Southend Council should rightly be praised for their work to introduce LED lighting, an area we are currently investing in with a significant roll out programme planned over the coming two years. Despite having to find over £70million in savings this coming year, we have committed to continue to make further investment in our road network.”