There are no plans to dim Barnet’s streetlamps following a major upgrade across the borough.

Council chiefs gave the reassurance after a councillor said residents had raised safety concerns over the switch to LED lighting, which is currently in its early stages.

But it emerged some residents were concerned the new lights did not illuminate the areas up to their front doors as much older lamps.

Bosses say the upgrade from conventional lamps will save £850,000 a year and help to cut the council’s carbon emissions.

A central management system will allow the brightness of the lamps to be changed, and a council report says this could “further reduce energy consumption by dimming the lighting at appropriate times”.

At a meeting of the environment committee on Wednesday (November 27), Labour environment spokesman Cllr Alan Schneiderman (Woodhouse) said some residents had raised concerns over the ability to control lighting levels.

Cllr Schneiderman said: “Are lights going to be dimmed even more than they are at the moment? This is something residents are very concerned about regarding safety.

“If you are going to be able to dim them, is that going to make the streets less safe?”

Paul Bragg, the council’s head of network and infrastructure, said: “No. The intention, initially, is to make sure each road is lit to the recommended standard.

“The fact that we have a central management system allows us to absolutely maximise the efficiency, so it is not over-lighting, and we can dim the output to ensure it is just on compliance.

“It also gives the ability to further dim if we wanted to do in the future. But that is not the intention, initially.”

Committee chairman Cllr Dean Cohen (Conservative, Golders Green) confirmed lights would not be dimmed beyond their current levels.

He added: “It is an existing management system where they can dim it. It is an existing set up, but these will be new lights.”

Mr Bragg explained the system provides extra flexibility so lights can be made brighter if there is a spike in crime on some streets.

He added: “We have installed some trial sites and we’ve had no complaints whatsoever. The feedback we’ve had has been that one member of the household thinks they’re now maybe too bright; the other member thinks they’re great.

“The only comment that could be considered negative is they seem to have lost the light leading up to their front door.

“The reason is LED light is much more directional and very much directed towards the road, so we have not got anywhere near as much door lighting

“Some people have said they did like to use that light to find their way to their front door.”

The progress report discussed by the committee says all the streetlamps will be upgraded by August 2020 and the programme is running two months ahead of schedule.