Out of the six communities that were involved with the part-night switch off only two, Auchterless and Rora, remain using this switching regime; all others have reverted back to normal operation.

Community consultations were undertaken and initially there was support for the scheme in all of the communities apart from Sandend who were against the part-night switch off. After the trial Sandend reverted back to normal lighting times.

Subsequently there were community planning consultations and each time in those areas the vote was close with the majority against the scheme; these communities reverted back.

At the same time of the trial Aberdeenshire Council along with the other 32 local authorities entered into a new metering agreement with their energy supplier that changed the way we paid for energy. This change afforded very good savings in year one however it also meant that the part-night switch off would no longer afford the same savings as the cost of energy during the switch-off period halved.

The exercise itself proved that it was possible to reduce costs with minimum intervention in the street lighting network, it also highlighted points/issues that were not considered when the project was conceived. Currently all Aberdeenshire Council’s street lighting stock is being converted to LED and will be trimmed and dimmed affording savings as the energy consumed will be reduced as we will be reducing the burning hours and the kwh consumed.