The Vilnius police department told Baltic Reports it expects crime to rise as a result of the streetlight reductions. Photo by Nathan Greenhalgh.

VILNIUS — This autumn and winter could be the darkest for Lithuanian cities this century should plans by municipalities across the country to reduce the amount of street lighting to cut costs be approved. Police warn a crime increase may accompany the savings, though.

In Vilnius, the municipality is planning to switch off every third light, a move that is expected to save around 30 percent on the electricity bill.

“This will just be every third lamp in the city, not every second like some are suggesting and it should only reduce the light intensity by five to 10 percent,” Mindaugas Savickas, Vilnius Municipality spokesman told Baltic Reports. “It’s not as if a light place will become dark all of a sudden — if we have 10 lamps and then six or seven lamps, it will not become dark.”

The decision to turn off the lights would be made shortly, Savickas said adding that the elements of crime and loss in tourism would be considered before putting the plan into action.

“We don’t have a final decision yet, but it appears that it will happen,” Savickas said.

Vilnius Police spokesman Paulius Radvilavičius told Baltic Reports that crime is expected to rise when lights are turned off.

“Poor lighting in streets will possibly increase crime level, especially in public places,” he said. “Primarily, the number of robberies, assaults, thefts in public places, thefts from vehicles, violations of public order and administrative offenses will grow.”

If passed, the policy would see lighting across 80 percent of the city modified. Savickas said that there are places in the city where lights cannot be switched off, something which is under consideration by the municipality in Vilnius.

Shutdown of plant will increase prices

The plan could become crucial following the shutdown of Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant at the end of this year. The price of electricity could jump around 10 centai (€0.029) per kilowatt hour — about a third higher than now. The rise would mean serious cuts in other sectors with some municipalities are already in debt to electricity suppliers to the tune of millions of litas.

Lietuvos Rytas daily reported that RST, the eastern energy distribution grid company, is owed around 1.4 million litai (€405,000) by municipalities. Kaunas city municipality is understood to be in debt to a similar amount to VST, the western energy distribution grid company.

In Vilnius, the cuts will lead to expenditure of at least a million litai (€290,000) a year less. The estimated power bill for lighting this year in Vilnius will amount to around 6 million litai (€1.7 million).