A resounding well done to councillor Tony Cox in Southend in rejecting the proposal to turn off street lights at night.

He clearly sees the extremely serious downside to the proposal regarding public safety and is properly serving the people of Southend ensuring their civic amenity and safety rather than chasing carbon footprint targets as Essex County Council is doing.

I would recommend all residents to review the official crime statistics available online and note the fact that Maldon and Uttlesford were not and are not representative areas on which to base any study, so making the decision to turn off the lights from that study was ill-informed and against the public interest.

Much more densely populated areas should have been used. Had that been the case then a very different picture would have emerged regarding crime against people and property.

K Barber
Clinton Road
Canvey

...Has anyone considered the number of cars parked on our roads at night which we negotiate aided by street lighting. Will we be required to revert to compulsory parking lights?

Why can’t the street lights be solar powered?

Switch off lights on motorways and trunk roads not town and residential areas.

Have a thought for the emergency services they will still need to use the roads.

Should all places of entertainment be required to close before midnight to allow their patrons to return home safely? The majority of attacks on young persons take place in the early hours and these will bound to increase.

Keith Maynard
Westbury
Rochford