A CONCERNED councillor says his town has become an “easy target” for criminals after his call for streetlights to be switched back on was turned down.

Ivan Henderson said Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors lobbied Essex County Council’s full council to swap all lights to LED bulbs and then switch the streetlights back on across the county.

But the motion, first put forward in July, was voted down at Tuesday’s meeting.

Mr Henderson, Harwich’s Essex county councillor, said the town has suffered since the part-night lighting scheme was introduced in 2013, which saw most streetlights in the county switched off between 1am and 5am.

But he said more money could be saved and crime could be prevented if lights were on.

He said: “We were pleading with them. Police have had a cut of about 400 officers since 2015 and there is also a drop in the number of specials. It’s not going to get any better.

“Kent has switched to LED lights and they are saving £5 million a year and leaving the lights on for residents.

“We put up a really good argument. If we look at the statistics you can see where areas like Tendring, Colchester and Basildon are calling for lights to come on to help police fight crime and prevent crime.”

“Statistics show per 1,000 people in Tendring there was about 83 recorded crimes in the year ending June 2017, Colchester was about 70, and Basildon was 86. It is very worrying.”

Ivan, who is also a Harwich Town and Tendring district councillor, said if residents in rural areas don’t want their lights on then that is fine but urban areas with high crime should.

He added: “Chief Insp Shaun Kane, Colchester’s district commander, said there were opportunistic criminals targeting dark, unlit areas in Colchester.

“In Harwich, we have had this situation for the past two years where we have spates of crime.

“We know people are coming into the area and, of course, they are going to, it’s making us an easy target.”

“I personally think there has been more crime in Harwich since the lights went off.

“I think there are a lot more criminals operating in Harwich than we used to have and we need to do something about it.

“To assist our police and give them the extra tool to prevent and fight crime, then lets do it.”

Essex County Council is currently swapping a number of sodium lights to LEDs, which is expected to save £45 million over 20 years.

A spokesperson for the county council said: “Part-night lighting saves taxpayers more than £1 million every year and we are reinvesting that money to install smart LED streetlights to help reduce our carbon footprint, energy costs, maintenance costs and light pollution across the county.

“We are currently converting 42,000 streetlights to LED across the county as well as introducing energy-saving ‘smart streetlights’ to our all-night lighting areas.

“These smart streetlights are not only more reliable and energy efficient but offer the opportunity to plug in separate devices to help monitor pollution, create wi-fi hotspots and even guide driverless vehicles in the future.

“Essex County Council works with Essex Police to monitor crime, anti-social behaviour and road collisions that could be linked to part-night lighting across the county.

“We will always listen and act on any request from the police if there are concerns about safety in an area covered by part night lighting.”

“The Lanterns project report, conducted nationally, concluded that there was no evidence that reduced street lighting is linked to any increase in crime or road traffic collisions.”