Parts of Essex will be blacked out after councillors failed to block plans for a pilot scheme to turn off streetlights between midnight and 5am. Conservative-run Essex County Council is planning to shave £1M a year off the current £3.8M electricity cost. Councillors on a special audit and general scrutiny committee backed further investigations in two pilot areas last week – despite Conservative councillor, Ray Howard, pledging to fight the county-wide introduction of the move ‘tooth and nail’.