Switching the district's street lights back on would cost just over £60,000, a campaigner and former accountant has said.

David Bigg, chairman of the Witham and Braintree Rail Users Association, said the amount was equivalent to the “negligible” annual savings from the scheme.

Using figures obtained through Freedom of Information laws, Mr Bigg has calculated that County Hall makes an annual saving of £5.92 from each of the district’s 10,456 part-time street lights, which are switched off between midnight and 5am.

But with £120,000 spent on administering the county-wide system each year, and the £6.25 million cost of the entire project, Mr Bigg said politicians should think again.

“It would take seven years for them to break even. It doesn’t make financial sense and there are better ways of doing it,” he said.

See this week's Braintree and Witham Times for the full story.