HAMPSHIRE County Council is asking residents for their feedback to help prioritise proposals which aim to reduce the costs of some environmental work on the county’s highways.

Sean Woodward, the authority’s executive member for economy, transport and environment, said: “Ongoing reductions in our funding from Government have meant we must continually look very carefully at where we focus our resources.

“We’ve come up with a set of proposals which include further dimming of street lights, less frequent cutting grass along the highway, and less frequent weed killing. We would very much like to hear what people think of these ideas, to help contribute towards the savings targets the county council needs to make from its highways budget by 2017.

“Residents have told us, through the consultation we ran earlier this year, that they value highways maintenance. Therefore, these proposals do not affect the budgets currently allocated to the repair of the actual road or footway surfaces, nor safety related work and operation resilience – our long-term approach to managing the network.

“With 5,280 miles of road across the county to look after, this requires a substantial resource, and it’s important we use the money we have in the most targeted and cost-effective way.”

The proposed changes to the way highways environmental work is carried out, and on which the county council is seeking residents’ views, are:

• Further dimming, longer hours of dimming, or turning off street lights between certain hours;

• Reducing the number of times the grass is cut in rural and/or urban areas, or stopping grass cutting;

• Reducing the number of times a year that weeds are treated along the highway, or stopping weed killing.

Each of these proposals could save the county council between £50,000 and £200,000 per year.

Full details of the consultation and online response form are available at hants.gov.uk/highwaysconsultation. Alternatively, call 0300 5551388 to request a questionnaire in paper form. The consultation period runs until Friday, December 11.