Share your view on the great switch off

Every week Kent County Council chiefs appear to release a new streetlight proposal that will save taxpayers millions. First they announce they are going to switch off all the streetlights around the county. Then maybe just some of them. Then they announce they plan to turn them all back on at night. Then they decide that actually they won’t. It’s hard to keep up.

But now the council has announced that the streetlights could actually just be turned down a bit thanks to new LED technology.

The ongoing streetlight saga has been a heated topic of debate for residents for years, after the council first announced they would turn out the lights.

Numerous people have claimed the switch-off increased the level of crime in their communities, or certainly their fear of it.

Last year a victim of notorious Ashford sex attacker John Williams issued a plea to KCC to switch the lights back on. The woman was grabbed from behind near Singleton Lake and sexually assaulted.

She said the attack left her too paranoid to walk in the dark and started a petition to keep the lights on at night to prevent others suffering her nightmare.

But Kent Police said there was no link between streetlights and increased crime.

Maybe there is, maybe there isn’t but the only way KCC will truly know the impact of switching off streetlights is if we tell them.

This week they launched a 10-week consultation inviting opinion on the new LED system.

Whatever your views on the great switch off, we think the council really needs to hear them.