COPELAND council wants to hand over management of footway lighting around the borough in a bid to save money.

Mayor Mike Starkie sent letters to parish and town councils asking that they consider taking over management and running costs and maintenance of the lights, which is estimated at around £146 each.

These include lights in council-owned car parks, footpaths and smaller pockets of land formerly owned by the council.

A spokesman for Copeland council said: “A letter was sent, in late 2019, to town and parish councils across Copeland to encourage them to consider adopting the footway lighting within their boundaries. This is an invitation to begin discussions on the matter and no deadlines have been set by Copeland Borough Council. General costs have been outlined in the initial correspondence as it is difficult to accurately predict the annual costs for each footway light.

“A number of years ago Copeland Borough Council recognised that it could not continue to maintain its current level of footway lights within existing revenue budgets and therefore a phased withdrawal of footway lights was initiated. The council continued to maintain existing footway lights for as long as they are considered to be structurally sound and compliant with safety requirements.

“Copeland Borough Council also facilitate requests for new lights on the basis that all capital and revenue costs are wholly funded by a third party – such as a parish council or housing association. The council also prioritises the removal of footway lights where they are in a poor physical condition with no automatic replacement, unless funded by a third party.

“Copeland Borough Council is currently looking to work with town and parish councils to prioritise local footway lighting needs and to ask them to consider accepting responsibility for all or some of the remaining footway lights.

“The council can arrange to provide maps and descriptions of the lights in each area – requests can be made by contacting its Open Spaces team.”

The county council is responsible for street and highways lighting.