VILLAGES and housing estates could be plunged into darkness with no street lighting as part of proposed £1.6 million cuts in the county council's environmental services budget.

Other proposals include scrapping gritting from all except A-class roads, dropping the parish lengthsman scheme, and withdrawing funding for Sunday and evening bus services.

The measures were put forward this week by Richard Lander, the county council's director of environmental services. They could mean thousands of street lights on minor roads and in housing estates would not be switched on, saving £530,000; scrapping the lengthsman scheme (£450,000); cutting winter gritting (£100,000); scrapping maintenance of cycleways (£75,000) and cutting subsidies to bus services on Sundays and evenings (£225,000).

At the environment advisory panel meeting yesterday, Coun Sandie Webb said: "We cannot accept switching off lights on roads. The perception of crime is high. Switching off lights will create problems for so many people."

Coun Brian Atfield said: "I don't want to see us going into the dark ages. We have to spend money otherwise we will be back to the horse and cart.

A spokesman for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said cutting back on gritting, which could lead to more accidents, was to be regretted. "If they didn't cut back on gritting it would be something else which could create even greater problems."