A plan to replace 180,000 streetlights with LED bulbs will cost the county council about £40m but will eventually save the taxpayer a significant sum of money, says Kent County Council.

A fresh consultation over whether the county’s streetlights should stay on or off or be dimmed throughout the night is to get underway shortly.

KCC scrapped its previous switch-off programme after criticisms about the way it had consulted people and the impact it was having in some areas.

Instead, the authority announced it intended to fit LED ‘bulbs’ to all 118,000 streetlights as the costs of the technology has dropped.

County transport chiefs have now outlined a public consultation which will ask people for their views on three options.

These are to have part-night lighting, turning off streetlights between midnight and 5.30am; to continue with all-night lighting but dimming lights by half and finally, returning to all-night lighting.

The consultation over the new proposals will start next month and last for eight-to-10 weeks.

KCC was hit by a backlash over its original switch-off and was forced to fend off claims
it had failed to consult adequately.

An independent report commissioned by the council backed up some of these claims.

It emerged last week that more than a quarter of the 1,307 streetlights originally switched off in KCC’s trial had now been switched back on.