Kent County Council has been accused of saving “absolutely nothing” in its controversial streetlight switch off because of the amount it has had to spend on installing dimmer switches.

Labour said the authority’s claim to have saved £1m a year was misleading as it had been forced to spend £3m on switches - effectively nullifying the savings.

The council recently announced it is to phase out the switch-off programme by 2017 and instead replace all 120,000 lights with LED bulbs that are now cheaper than they were.

Council leader Cllr Paul Carter acknowledged the authority may not have embarked on part-time night lighting had it known that new technology would be more cost-effective.

His admission came as opposition parties heaped criticism on the council over its controversial policy at yesterday's budget meeting.

Cllr Will Scobie (Lab) said: “The council spent £3m on putting in devices. If this policy was only meant to last until 2017, as the council has said, and all the lights would be put back on, then we have saved absolutely nothing.

"It cost £3m to put in, it has saved £3m... it has been a complete waste of time.”

Council leader Paul Carter admitted that had the authority been aware the costs of LED bulbs would come down, it might have taken a different decision.

“There was a cost associated with it over a three-year period but the world has moved on since that decision and everyone is now saying the cost benefit on LED conversion is now there.

"We also have the ability of an interest-free loan which will substantially reduce the costs.

"Had we known then what we know now, we may have made slightly different decisions. But irrespective of that, we are saving £1m a year.”

Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Trudy Dean accused the council of misleading residents.

"There has been a backlash simply because of the way it was introduced, which was misleading and confusing," she said.

"We were told that residents supported it but it took a Freedom of Information request to discover fewer than 500 people did."

Calls for KCC to abandon its streetlight switch off were rejected by the Conservatives, who voted down a series of opposition amendments.