In Cardiff in the early 1990s, the City Council wanted to save money by turning lighting off on the A48 Eastern Avenue. This is a major dual carriageway into the city from the M4 at J29. The idea was to save money. At that time it was lit with 135W SOX.
Despite a major uproar, it was turned off and the lighting left intact. It was thought it would later be removed. In the end it was turned back on and the 135W SOX later replaced by ZX3s which still survive today.
East Sussex CC announced a couple of years back (the link is on here somewhere) that lighting would be turned off on distributor roads on the the outskirts of many towns, again to save money. It was unclear if it would later be removed.
However, as already mentioned, the spread of part night switching and LEDs/dimming seems to be reducing the amount of installations being switched off.
In west Wiltshire, signs were put up when part night switching was first implemented a few years back on certain A roads.
In my own village we were given the option of having the lighting removed or part nighted. In the end the Parish Council went for part night.
However much of the lighting stock is elderly and given none of the surrounding villages have lighting, I wonder if in the future the lighting could be removed.
In Derbyshire, notices like this are attached to columns (image courtesy of MJB).