A SUCCESSFUL street lighting scheme, which has saved taxpayers nearly £100,000, will be rolled out in Falfield and Cromhall in March.

After being implemented in various areas across the region, including Thornbury and Tytherington, the part-night street lighting programme will launch in the villages in Spring.

The scheme, which aims to save energy by switching off street lights between midnight and 5am, has helped reduce the region’s carbon emissions by 12 per cent since it was first introduced in 2008, saving the local authority £90,000.

Falfield and Cromhall are two of the last villages to switch to reduced operation. Head of StreetCare at South Gloucestershire Council, Mark King, said all of South Gloucestershire would move to part-night lighting by the end of October.

He said: "The results to date show that part-night lighting is working well in South Gloucestershire and we look forward to completing implementation of the scheme later this year.

"The safety and security of residents and road users is paramount and over a number of years we ran trials to make sure that the scheme would deliver the expected benefits without any adverse effects."

About 6,000 of the district’s 29,500 lights have been switched to part-night operation over the last four years.

By the time the scheme is fully implemented in October, around 60 per cent of the district’s lights, approximately 20,000, will have been switched to part night operation.

But before extending the energy-saving operation to Cromhall and Falfield, the council is assessing all lights to pinpoint those that are unsuitable for part-night lighting. About 40 per cent of lights, including those near roundabouts, emergency services, sheltered housing and known areas of high crime, for instance, will be automatically excluded from the scheme for safety or security reasons.

The programme is expected to reduce the region’s carbon emissions by 2,000 tonnes a year and help save the council £250,000, a fifth of its total street lighting costs.

Council bosses are currently encouraging locals to share their views and potential concerns with the StreetCare team ahead of the move.

Full details of the scheme, including area by area implementation dates, are available at www.southglos.gov.uk/partnightlighting