“DON’T panic.” That’s the message to Southampton residents from the deputy mayor of a town which has had its lights dimmed.

Their strength has been cut by 50 per cent across County Durham to save money.

With Southampton City Council looking to introduce a similar scheme, Hartlepool’s deputy mayor Cath Hill says she hasn’t heard a single complaint since the lights were turned down earlier this year.

They are dimmed by 50 per cent between midnight and 5am and by 25 per cent between 10pm and midnight.

Cllr Hill said: “There haven’t been any complaints, which perhaps shows that there aren’t any problems with it. I don’t think it’s had a big impact at all – you can’t actually notice the difference that much at all.”

Here there will be a series of trials, starting at the Colne Avenue junction with Flamborough Close in Maybush at 10pm tonight. Then it will be the turn of the Heatherdeane Road junction with Omdurman Road in Highfield at 10pm on June 18 and the Peveril Road junction with Knighton Road in Itchen at the same time on June 25.