YOU might be interested to see a list of roads that are to have their street lights switched off after midnight. However, two local councils – Borough of Poole and Dorset County Council – don’t want you to know.

They have rejected Freedom of Information requests from the Daily Echo, citing police advice.

Poole council says that the “need to protect the location of these properties is greater than the public test of making this information available to you”.

But, whether or not the switch-off is a sensible idea, surely residents have a right to know whether it affects them.

The councils insist they are not expecting crime to rise in the affected areas. Otherwise, they surely wouldn’t be proposing these measures.

So why is there a “need to protect the location of these properties”?

After all, people in the areas concerned will find out soon enough when the streets go dark.