SWINDON Council has been forced into a U-turn and switch back on dozens of street lights less than a month after turning off more than 400 to save cash.

But now one councillor has warned that more lights could be turned off around the town in the future.

Last month the council identified a total of 433 street lights along some major roads to be switched off in an attempt to save £20,000 to bung its budget black hole.

Now it has switched back on lights along 11 of the 22 roads it had originally identified.

Out of the 433 lights it was planning to turn off, they have actually turned off 389.

Marlborough Road and Merlin Way are two of the roads where lights have been switched back on along with a section of Dorcan Way from Kingfisher Drive roundabout to Covingham Drive roundabout.

Here, all of the street lights have had to go back on as it has an adjacent footway.

A council spokesman said: “We had to make the initial decisions about which lights to turn off based on estimates. But we always intended to make adjustments because there’s no substitute for seeing what it all looks like on the ground when it’s actually dark.

“The changes have been made on 11 of the 22 stretches of road originally identified.

“In one case we’ve switched off more lights than originally planned, in Cirencester Way.”

The plans have raised concerns from many road users especially taxi drivers who claim it has made the roads more dangerous but councillor Peter Greenhalgh has suggested that more lights could be turned off in the future.

The cabinet member for Transformation, Strategic Planning, Sustainability and Transport said: “It’s just tweaking, it is not as if we have turned all the lights back on but we have adjusted some like one at a bus stop or lights to help illuminate a cycle path.

“It is always better to see how things pan out and adjust accordingly.

“I have only received one email from someone who didn’t like the idea, I know there have been claims that the taxi drivers are against it as well but I say if you can’t drive with just headlights you should not be allowed on the road.

“This has certainly not caused any problems as far as I am concerned, you’ve got to remember we have long stretches of motorway in this country where there are no street lights and people travelling at high speeds.

“I would like to see more street lights turned off, there are always street lights that are not needed and that were maybe put in for historic reasons which are no longer relevant.

“The area I live in I would love to see all the lights turned off.

“We do this with safety being absolutely paramount, we would never do it down a pedestrian street.

“We are not proposing to turn off all the lights in Swindon but there is a possibility in the future there could be more.”