Pembrokeshire County Council has absolutely no intention of turning off street lamps where this might result in risk.

This assurance was given by Director of Transportation and Environment, Ian Westley, to members of the Environment Overview and Scrutiny committee yesterday (Thursday).

He was responding to a comment by Councillor Rhys Sinnett that there was a public misconception that street lights were going to be switched off in towns as a well as rural areas. Replacing photocells on street lights with programmable devices to switch off between midnight and 5.30am will cost Pembrokeshire County Council £172,000, but could save an estimated £198,200 a year, it was reported.

Re-programming or replacing the time-switches on the county's 1,089 street lights at a cost of £14,500 would also make a saving of £15,115, while a phased programme of decommissioning of below standard lights would also save around £13,000 a year.

The Director said street lighting cost £320,591 this year, while energy price increases were estimated to take this to £436,004 next year, compared with the budget estimate of £368,680.

The suggested measures could achieve potential annual savings of £213,315.