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ROMSEY'S MP has demanded that Tory-controlled Hampshire County Council should shed light on how it is spending its share of a £225m government handout to improve streetlighting.

Lib-Dem, Sandra Gidley, has taken a swipe at the county for turning off streetlights in the town in what she described as an "attempt to cut energy bills" while, at the same time, it is spending £4.4m on publicity.

Mrs Gidley said: "The transport minister, Rosie Winterton, publicly admitted that streetlighting improves road safety, reduces the fear of crime and crime itself.

"I am astounded that the council is prepared to compromise public safety by turning off streetlighting across the county in the guise of saving money while, at the same time, increasing their expenditure on publicity and fat-cat salaries.

"This is more galling when the council is being provided with funding by the Government specifically to invest in more streetlighting. The question must be asked: Where is the government money going?' I would strongly urge the council to start investing the money provided for it into ensuring that the residents of Hampshire aren't left feeling vulnerable and afraid at night-time."

Hampshire, Southampton and West Sussex local authorities shared the £225m awarded under the Private Finance Investment project to upgrade 165,000 streetlights in the next 25 years.

Hampshire has been trialling various forms of energy-saving and eco-friendly streetlighting in preparation for the PFI project.

Areas of Fishlake Meadows in Romsey are part of a controversial experiment which has seen streetlights turned off at midnight, much to the anger of many residents, who claim the darkened streets could encourage crime.

Responding to Mrs Gidley's comments, a county spokesman said: "The Romsey streetlighting trial affects about 300 households and is about assessing different ways of lighting streets as part of the PFI: dimming, turning off all lights and leaving on selected lights.

"We acknowledge concerns about part-night lighting, but we must access various options available before we enter into a 25-year PFI contract. No decisions have been made yet about the merits or otherwise of different streetlighting."

Hitting back at Mrs Gidley's remarks about cash spent on publicity and pay, county council leader, Ken Thornber, said the authority had a legal responsibility to keep council taxpayers informed about services.

"The publicity budget is used to keep more than 1.25 million residents informed about the £1.6bn services the county council provides to protect and develop Hampshire's environment, care for the vulnerable and other education and other opportunities for all," he said.

He added that more than half the £4.4m publicity budget went on recruitment and the bulk of that went on finding staff for the county's 530 schools.

Looking at staff pay, Mr Thornber added: "We make no secret of the pay of senior staff and publish information on expenditure on staff salaries. It's inevitable as the years go by and pay increases through inflation that the county council, like any other organisation, will show more people on higher salaries. It is not that we are recruiting more people to higher salary bands; it is that we are providing staff with nationally negotiated cost-of-living pay increases."

9:41am Friday 9th May 2008

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