TURNING off street lights across Worcestershire will not "take people into darkness", according to a senior county politician.

Conservative Councillor John Smith, the cabinet member for highways, has defended criticism that turning off lights will put people in danger.

As your Worcester News revealed last week, the project is due to head into Worcester by the spring after already launching in Droitwich, Bromsgrove, Bewdley, Redditch and Kidderminster.

The imminent move into the city will see two out of three lights in residential areas switched off between midnight and 6am as part of a project to tackle 17,000 across Worcestershire.

Cllr Smith was forced to defend the move during a council meeting after Labour councillors called it "clap trap".

It was debated during a full meeting of Worcestershire County Council.

"We are not turning lights off, what we are doing is reducing the amount of hours they are burning for so they are off between midnight and 6am," he said.

"All of these comments (that we are) taking people into darkness are not true."

He also said recent criticism of council staff working on the project, led by Labour Councillor Joe Baker, were "deplorable".

The Labour politician accosted one officer doing the work to protest over the impact of it.

Cllr Baker said: "I told her she was 'peddling Tory clap trap', after she told me the cabinet saw fit to decide street lights are a luxury.

"I think my comments about it being so disgraceful are adequate."

During the debate Councillor Adrian Hardman, the leader, said at a recent public roadshow in Redditch street lights had not been mentioned once.

"Not one person raised this with me - they raised lots of other issues but not street lights," he said.

He also said in the area he represents, Bredon, the lights are always off and nobody notices.

As your Worcester News revealed on Wednesday, the council says it has had very little complaints or feedback at all about the lights which have gone off so far.

It plans to move into Bewdley early next year before heading to Worcester by the spring, and then the rest of south Worcestershire.

The move is aimed at saving £600,000 per year in electricity costs by 2016, from a total budget of £2.4 million for 52,000 street lights and 8,000 illuminated road signs.