Cambridge City Council is to offer to contribute financially to the County Council to ensure that the streetlights in Cambridge remain on throughout the night from April this year.

In plans published today, the County Council proposes cutting overnight streetlights in residential areas throughout the county from either 1am or 2am to 6am. Previous proposals suggested than the lights should go off from midnight. Roads in Cambridge affected would include Garret Hostel Lane, Grange Road and Trinity Lane.

However, in its Budget Setting Report, which will be published tomorrow, Cambridge City Council will propose a financial contribution, which will go towards paying for the lights to remain on in Cambridge itself, following meetings with campaigning groups.

The leader of Cambridge City Council, Councillor Lewis Herbert, condemned the County Council's proposals, claiming they wanted to cut street lighting "irrespective of need - whether it is Romsey or Ramsey, or an isolated rural cottage in the middle of nowhere".

He argued that the "public safety case" keeping lights on in Cambridge throughout the entire night is "overwhelming", adding that "we think people should be safe in the knowledge that the lights will stay on".

Herbert claimed that as the County Council is "expected" to agree to the cut and "apply it rigidly to their night time lighting responsibilities across the county", irrespective of "the local need or crime levels", the City Council has "no choice but to intervene" to prevent the switch-off.

”At less than 50p per resident per year we believe it is right to fund lighting for the period from 2am which the county is cutting” he said.

The proposal will go before the County Council Highways and Community Infrastructure Committee on 12th January, with the recommendation that the committee “consider reducing the hours of street light switch off by between one and two hours”.

In a statement, Cambridgeshire County Councillor Roger Hickford, Chairman of the Highways and Community Infrastructure Committee, said: “In an ideal world we would not want to turn off street lights. However, with the recent announcement by Government we now have to find an extra £5 million on top of the £41 million we have already had to save for 2015/16.”

“We have been working closely with authorities across Cambridgeshire to find local solutions and understand the various needs of the areas. Many councils have come forward with offers of paying for lights and we welcome Cambridge City Council’s suggestion which will be looked at by Councillors.”

Speaking to Varsity, a spokesperson for the County Council said “We’re even worse off than we thought we going to be from the recent government announcements.” They stressed that if the cuts were not made in areas such as street lighting, they would have to fall in areas such as services for children and the disabled.

Beth Cloughton, Women's Officer at Trinity College, who started a petition against the proposed switch-off, said she is "grateful to the City Council who have taken into consideration the welfare of its citizens." She praised the City Council's offer to step into the breach for "ensuring that the people of Cambridge remain feeling safe."

The County Council spends £270,000 each year on powering Cambridge’s 10,398 streetlights, from a total of £1.1 million towards street lighting across the county. In earlier discussions, it emphasised the savings that can be made from the plan to offer part-night lighting.

The plan was opposed by Labour's Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner, and by former MP, Liberal Democrat Julian Huppert.