Essex County Council has announced street lights will remain on until 1am for six days each week. 

The change to the part night lighting scheme, which currently sees lights off from midnight to 5am daily, was announced at a cabinet meeting this morning.

The change is designed to have a positive impact on the night-time economy in urban areas and benefit commuters.

But the previous midnight to 5am switch off will remain in place on Monday mornings, due to earlier closing hours and limited commuter travel.

The changes will come into place from Monday, to coincide with the start of British Summer Time.

Essex County Council says it is on track to save £1.4m per annum by the end of the current financial year.

Rodney Bass, Essex County Council cabinet member for transportation, said: “We have taken the decision to change the operating hours of part night lighting because of the positive impact it will have for the night time economy in our main towns.

“It is important that we continue to fine tune PNL based on feedback from urban areas like Epping Forest, where the hours of PNL have already been successfully varied where there are underground stations operating after midnight.

"We are fortunate in Essex that because of our uniquely flexible and controllable lighting system, we are able to do this and so can respond to issues of public perception and concern.

“We remain open to further fine-tuning of the system, and will look again at the timings when we revert back to GMT in the autumn.”