THE nights could be getting darker in rural areas across Worcestershire as environment bosses consider switching off thousands of street lights.

Worcestershire County Council is considering a mass switch-off in certain rural areas between 11pm and 5am - in a bid to save cash and energy and reduce light pollution.

The authority's head of environment, John Hobbs, estimated it could save the taxpayer £300,000 a year.

The news comes after Essex County Council announced it was planning to switch off lighting between midnight and 5am in areas it felt appropriate.

The matter was discussed by members of Worcestershire County Council's Cabinet on Thursday.

Cabinet member for the environment Derek Prodger said the scheme would have to be implemented in rural not urban areas.

"If you decided to switch off street lighting in Worcester I think you'd get a pretty aggressive response from the police because of the night-time economy that exists there," he said. "In the rural area, villages might prefer no lights at all and we need to give them this opportunity."

Speaking afterwards, Mr Hobbs said the authority was considering implementing the scheme in about a year but that the technology would need to exist to do so. They authority already used green fuel sources and low-energy light fittings for the 51,000 street lights in the county, which work on sensors, and buy cheaper power for the night-time, he added.

Mr Hobbs said: "All we're doing is looking at whether the technology is available but we would never do it without a risk assessment because we're more interested in highways safety than saving energy."

The parish council at Fladbury, between Pershore and Evesham, considered supporting the move at a meeting earlier this month.

Vice-chairman Ian Southcott said the village, which has about 1,000 residents, was one of the first in the country to have street lighting, which was powered by Fladbury Mill.

He added: "Because of that heritage we thought we ought to be taking a lead in considering the turning off of lights at certain times in order to save energy and help climate change. "I think we'll have a debate about it and invite views from the village."