A campaign group has raised questions over the financial justification of rolling out a scheme to reduce street lighting across the county.
This comes as Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) announced on Wednesday that it will defer a decision on plans to switch off many of the county’s streetlights amid safety concerns.
Ahead of the meeting on Thursday, deputy leader Dr Pete Sudbury said he intends to defer the decision until further work has been carried out, including more consultation and talks with the police.
He apologised for "any upset caused".
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Under the proposed scheme, street lighting would be switched off between 11pm and 6.30am, rather than remaining on all night.
This would follow the scheme to convert OCC's street lamps to LED, a £38 million project expected to lead to energy savings of millions of pounds over the next 20 years.
OCC has said the latest proposal to reduce street lighting across the county when fully implemented is estimated to save £400,000 per year.
However, a public document from the council states the scheme is estimated to cost £2.2 million to roll out, which "exists within the allocated capital budget for Street Lighting Adaptation".
On Monday, ahead of the decision deferral, Richard Parnham of campaign group Reconnecting Oxford said: “Only last year, the council made a big deal about how the switch to LED lighting would save millions of pounds.
"Now, they want to 'save' £400,00 per year by switching off these newly-installed LED streetlights at night. If that’s the plan, why did they spend £38 million replacing the old street lights in the first place?
"Worse, their own estimates say it will cost them £2.2m in up-front set-up costs to achieve this £400,000 annual saving.
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"How does that make any financial sense?”
In response to this, a spokesman for OCC on Tuesday said: "They would not be switched off all the time. The LEDs will therefore last longer, improving value for money."
Mr Parnham added: “In their proposal, the council also highlights the fact that the proposal would save 400 tonnes of CO2 per year."
The OCC website states that upon completion, the LED streetlight programme is estimated to cut costs and emissions by more than 70 per cent in comparison with 2010, saving almost 6,000 tonnes of CO2 each year.
Mr Parnham said this has more environment benefit "but without all the grief that this proposal will cause Oxfordshire residents and visitors".
"Between June 19 and July 21, 2024, the county council ran an interactive tool, encouraging residents and stakeholders to take on the role of councillors and create a balanced budget for 2025/26.
"Just over half of respondents (52 per cent) indicated support for a reduction in funding for street lighting in favour of other services."
Concerns have also been raised about the impact assessment conducted by OCC.
Mr Parnham queried the impact assessment carried out by the authority.
The impact assessment for the scheme says proposals would have “no impact” on people by reference to their sex, age, disability or any other "protected characteristic”.
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"In all seriousness, the council says the proposals would have 'no impact' on people by reference to their sex, age, disability or any other legally-protected characteristic and that, as a result, no mitigations to the planned scheme are required.
"How an earth did they reach that conclusion?”
Linda Smith, city councillor and cabinet member for housing and communities, added: "Residents in Blackbird Leys want more street lighting, not less.
"It is outrageous that the report fails to mention any concern about women's safety."
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