Street lights are finally turned off (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Street lights are finally turned off

Ref. 28889-20THE street lights in Bolingbroke Close have been switched off after being on 24 hours a day for the past six months.

And resident Suzanne Hancock finds it curious that the electrical fault, which Swindon Council said was the cause of the lights being on day and night, was corrected just one day after the Adver published the story.

The mother-of-two had repeatedly called the council about the 20 or so lights being constantly lit. The electricity was not costing the council any extra because it is on an unmetered charge.

However, green groups in Swindon agreed with Mrs Hancock that it was a disgrace electricity had been wasted for six months.

She is pleased the lights are no longer on during the day because energy is not being wasted unnecessarily but feels she was not listened to.

The council told the Evening Advertiser this week that the electrical fault would be too expensive to repair and it was hoping the fault would correct itself.

Mrs Hancock, 37, who is a dinner assistant, said: "They said it was caused by an electrical fault so I don't know how they managed to get them turned off so quickly.

"They were switched off the day after the article was in the Adver.

"It is great but I just feel nobody took any notice when I tried to do something about it."

Gavin Calthrop, Swindon Council spokesman, said: "Swindon Council has been routinely testing the control panels of the lights for some time to see if the electrical fault is still there. After the latest test the lights do seem to be operating correctly but we will be monitoring the situation to see if there is any recurrence of the fault."

bvadde@newswilts.co.uk