Today the Oxford Mail is trying to get to the bottom of a question that has been vexing many of our readers.

A survey by this paper found almost half of businesses in a city centre street were leaving some of their shop lights throughout the night.

The check started when readers called to point out how light was blazing out of the now-closed Borders bookshop in Magdalen Street.

It is, to put it bluntly, ridiculous.

There really is no need for all the lights to be left on and, to make it worse, nobody seems to know who is responsible for the building.

Anyone passing by would think workers were inside busy preparing the store for new owners, but, no, it is still very empty.

Critics say leaving lights on wastes energy and money, and places an unnecessary burden on the environment.

But some shops in the survey claimed it was prudent to leave on lights for security and advertising purposes. Understandable.

Environmental campaigners have tried to figure out how much energy is burned by leaving the lights on and while that is difficult, there is a clear impact.

However, apart from the important security issue, we must remember how dark and dingy our streets would be without any light from shops.

There must surely be a middle ground which could be reached between light pollution, wasted electricity and not turning the city into a black hole.

Let us know about any other buildings around the county which you feel could do with flicking off a few switches.