CARLISLE City Council has pledged to lobby the county council to enhance street lighting across the district as part of a safety drive.

Cumbria County Council hopes to change all its street lights to energy-saving LEDs by the end of 2021 in a move to save money, energy, and reduce light pollution.

The scheme will help save more than £1m a year but has led to some concerns over public safety.

Councillor David Morton tabled a motion – agreed by the city council on January 7 – urging the county council to “improve the quality” of street lights in Carlisle.

He said he supported environmental initiatives but stressed changes should be introduced in a “sensible way”.

“We need to make sure the street lighting is capable of illuminating roads and pavements, especially in urban areas,” he said.

He described some of the new lighting in the city as “inadequate”, adding that the brightness of some street lights were obscured by trees to the extent “that they might as well not be there”.

However, leading city councillors have received assurances from county council chiefs that the new lights across the city “comply with regulations”.

But Mr Morton wants the county council to review the strength of street lighting, as well as the possibility of putting in “reflectors to better spread the light”.

Councillor Colin Glover said the issue was not simply to do with brightness but also positioning and direction.

He said: “Nothing frustrates you more than when somebody has gone to the trouble of putting a street light up and it’s actually stuck in a tree, so you are getting no lighting from it anyway.”