CHANGES to Dorset's streetlights could both save money and make life healthier – councillors have been told.

Resident Dr Gavin Ryder has submitted a paper making the case for changes to the county's streetlighting policy which, he says, currently is not the best it could be for people, plants and animals.

He said that choosing the right light and level of light would minimise disruption to people's sleep patterns.

The change, he says, would also lead to significant financial savings.

Head of highways Jack Wiltshire told councillors on Thursday's Place and Resources Overview committee that changes are already being made to many of the county's streetlights. He said there was a programme already running to replace many of the amber-tinged sodium lights to LED bulbs, resulting in a 60 per cent energy saving.

He said that brighter, 'cold' temperature. LED lights were often used for main road routes with many smaller towns or villages having a preference for warmer coloured streetlights – 3000Kelvin, compared to 4000K on main routes, or even lower at 2700 or 2200K.

Mr Wiltshire said the council were aware of the impact of lighting on nature with research showing that bats could be disrupted by certain types of lighting, with some plants being confused into shedding leaves earlier than they normally would, if close to certain types of light. In both cases warmer colour temperature lights were considered better for nature.

He told councillors that the authority was also mindful of the need to prevent 'light spill' and use the right colour temperature bulbs and directional lighting to target lighting more effectively.

Around 6,000 of the council's remaining 27,000 sodium lights (from a total of 50,000) are likely to be replaced by the council over the next six years, saving between £233,000 and £265,000 a year in energy costs, depending on which colour temperature is chosen.

One of the options is to replace with 2700K bulbs which would achieve £233,000 a year in energy costs and 185,600kg of carbon a year without the need to add more light columns.

Lanterns which have already been replaced with 4,000K LEDs are not likely to be replaced again.

Councillors heard that at the moment Dorset's streetlights are provided under a 25-year Private Finance Initiative with a company called Enerveo, which is due to expire in 2032.

A six-week public consultation will be held, possibly starting by the end of March, to seek the views of residents on a new county-wide streetlight policy with a final paper expected to come before an autumn Cabinet meeting.

Lyme Green councillor Belinda Bawden told the committee that she received quite a lot of complaints about the new, brighter, lights where they had been fitted already.

The council has previously heard from Swanage residents living near the Durlston Country Park complaining about the brightness of lights which had been replaced in that area.

Cllr Ray Bryan (St Leonards and St Ives) said the council needed to consider, in its final report, how it would protect homes from light spill, possibly by using shading.

Cllr Sherry Jesperson (Hillforts & Upper Tarrants) said he hoped the council would maintain its previous position for rural areas where the default position would always be not to have streetlights and for others areas, apart from where there was a safety issue, that lights should go off at midnight.