Turning off street lights at night does not increase road traffic collisions and does not lead to a rise in crime, a new study has claimed.

In Epping Forest, more than 70 per cent of street lamps were turned off overnight from March 2014, as Essex County Council tried to save more than £6million by 2020.

Since the switch-off, campaigners and opponents to the move have claimed it is unsafe to have unlit streets at night and say that the move has led to an increase in vandalism and robberies in areas such as Chigwell.

Despite the claims, a new study from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in partnership with University College London “found little evidence of harmful effects of switch off, part-night lighting… on road collisions or crime in England and Wales”.

The study, published yesterday (July 28) in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, analysed 14 years of data from 62 councils which have tried a number of schemes, also including dimming or changing bulbs to LED lighting.

No link was found with a change in night time road collisions, and there was no evidence of a link between the level of crime and permanently switched off or partial night lighting.