Witchford Parish Council has called a public meeting in response to plans to remove dozens of streetlights from the village.

In a bid to save almost £1.7million, Cambridgeshire County Council is removing and replacing 10 per cent of streetlights in towns and villages across the county, with 26 lights being taken out of operation in Witchford alone.

Leaflets have been sent to households throughout the village detailing the plans and the parish council will hold a meeting on Thursday, February 5, in St Andrew’s Hall, in Main Street.

A representative from Balfour Beatty, which is carrying out the streetlight replacement programme for the county council, will be in attendance to answer questions from villagers.

The location of the 26 streetlights scheduled to be removed will also be discussed.

Balfour Beatty’s Kate Russell attended the January meeting of Witchford Parish Council and explained that the work would begin from January 26 and was being carried out “to reduce energy consumption and to reduce costs”.

She explained that any streetlights in Witchford that are replaced will have white lights and that, in residential streets, lights will be dimmed by 40 per cent between 10pm and 6am.

Ms Russell added that lighting on traffic routes would have to comply with British Safety Standards, so it would be “unlikely that any street lights will be removed from Main Street”.

Witchford Parish Council will be given the opportunity to take over responsibility for any of the streetlights due to be removed, though it will then have to foot the power for the ongoing energy and maintenance costs.