Road safety across the country could be taking a hit as a result of many local authorities' decisions to implement overnight blackouts for street lighting along many routes.

This is the conclusion of motoring organisation the AA, which has drawn on the latest figures from the Department for Transport that highlight a 21 per cent increase in likelihood that individuals travelling on unlit roads after dark will be involved in an accident in comparison to those on routes that remain illuminated.

Moreover, in the last five years, measures to improve road safety across the UK have resulted in the number of accidents on roads in built-up areas of 18.6 per cent overall and 24 per cent when in the wet when lighting is present.

However, on roads where lighting is temporarily turned off for periods of the night, these improvements are far lower at just 12 and 16.7 per cent respectively.

The coroner has also reported on six cases since 2009 where road deaths could have been avoided had street lighting not been turned off.

All of these issues combined have led to something of a political backlash against local authorities that have implemented these energy and carbon-saving measures, with the five worst-performing councils for street lighting in this year's National Highways and Transport Network public satisfaction survey all operating overnight blackouts on routes in their area.

These were Essex County Council (CC), Hertfordshire CC, South Gloucestershire CC, Buckinghamshire CC and Suffolk CC.

AA president Edmund King commented: "You have to wonder if many councils fully appreciate the difficulties and concern their street light blackouts create for their electorates, particularly those who commute or drive early in the morning.

"Little wonder perhaps that counties on the outskirts of the capital, where workers have to get going very early or late to beat the rush, are seeing such a strong backlash."