WEST Somerset villages dominate the list of areas signed up to a pilot scheme to turn street lights off across the county.

Eight of the 14 trial areas are in West Somerset and include Monksilver, Dulverton, Winsford, Brushford, Porlock, Exton, Brompton Regis and Exford.

The Free Press was forced to submit a request for the details using the Freedom of Information Act after Somerset County Council refused to name the areas.

The authority insisted the information was confidential after a number of town and parish councils asked for their involvement to be kept secret.

Under the part night lighting scheme, the county council will initially spend £500,000 converting street lights in rural areas to automatically switch off between midnight and 5.30am to save money and cut carbon emissions.

The money has come from the South West Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnership, while the Free Press has learned a further £400,000 could be forthcoming in European funding to widen the scheme.

Any lights that are converted will remain switched off in the small hours for a minimum of two years while the effects of the scheme are "monitored".

But even if it proves unpopular with residents, the lights will only be switched back on if the police report an increase in crime, anti-social behaviour or accidents as a direct result of the switch-off.

The county council initially said it would take "several months" to confirm which villages had asked to be included in the scheme.

However, following the Free Press' Freedom of Information Act request at the end of last month, the authority this week revealed 14 areas had signed up.

The other villages in Somerset are Leigh on Mendip, Burrowbridge, Churchstanton, Tatworth and Forton, Keinton Mandeville and South Petherton.

Cllr David Hall, the authority's cabinet member for strategic planning and economic development, said he hoped the switch-off would cover 20 per cent of lights in the county, while a further five per cent could be dimmed.

He said: "We are eager to reduce the impact street lighting has on the environment as well as bringing our energy costs down.

"We are being very careful that the lighting of areas around major traffic routes, key pedestrian crossings, road hazards, vulnerable people's residences, hospitals, and crime hot spots are not affected."

The council said the effects of part night lighting would be monitored over two years at six monthly intervals - but only reversed if complaints were received from the police.

Council officers have estimated that each street light in the county is lit for around 4,500 hours a year.

Part night lighting would reduce that figure to 1,700 hours annually, while dimming would achieve a 50 per cent reduction in energy consumption "with negligible effect on the level of illumination".