Islands council cuts street light hours to save money

A Scottish islands council will turn off its street lights an hour earlier to help it save money.

Western Isles local authority, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, said areas where lights went off at 23:00 would be programmed to go off at 22:00.

The comhairle said there would some exemptions, mainly around marine facilities.

But it warned people might need to carry a torch if out walking in their communities late at night.

The local authority is to phase the changes to timers on street lights:

• June and July for Lewis and Harris
• August and September for Uist and Barra

The comhairle said: "The implementation of this policy may not be so noticeable over the summer.

"However, the general public in affected areas should consider alternative means of personal lighting should they be walking around their communities after the implementation of the re-scheduled switch off time."

Eight years ago, the local authority considered switching off street lights for six months of the year to make £1.4m of savings.

It said the cuts were necessary because of a reduction in funding.