Let there be light (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Let there be light

Coun Colin Lovell, left, and David Poulton who are concerned that the street lights are out Pic ref: 78799-13RESIDENTS in Moredon have been plunged into darkness every night for five weeks since their street lamps stopped working.

The lamps have not worked in Broadway, Windrush Road and Newland Road for more than a month.

And when Southern Electric engineers finally came around to fix them on Friday they promptly stopped working again three minutes later.

David Poulton, 75, lives in Broadway with his wife Margaret, 53.

He said: "One of the street lights is right outside my door and we are used to having light when we step out onto the street at night.

"Without the street lamps it really is pitch black down here.

"There are a lot of elderly people living in this area and without the street lamps working they feel very apprehensive about going out in the street after dark.

"Nobody likes walking around at night in this day and age but this makes it even worse.

"And it's not just the people that live here who are affected.

"This is not a cul de sac and there are plenty of people passing through all the time.

"It's not too nice for them having to walk down a pitch black street."

He says that he cannot believe it has taken the engineers from Southern Electric so long to fix the problem.

"Five weeks is a very long time.

"They can build towers in America in less time than that."

Coun Colin Lovell (Con, Moredon) said he was concerned about the safety of pensioners living in the area.

"The whole thing has really dragged on.

"We thought it would all be over on Friday but the lights were out again three minutes later.

"The situation is quite frustrating.

"It is quite frightening for pensioners to go outside now because the streets are so dark. Especially because there have been some problems with teenage kids in the area."

A spokeswoman for Southern Electric said engineers would be returning to fix the problem.

And she added that Swindon Council having changed the position of the light switches had complicated the situation.

"We were aware that there had been a problem for a couple of weeks but we thought the lights had been repaired.

"We have had a slight problem because the council has changed the switch points on the roads which has caused some difficulty.

"We are looking at the situation again to see how it can be resolved."

A Swindon Council spokesman said: "The problem with the lights in Broadway is again a supply fault.

"Scottish and Southern Electric repaired them on Friday afternoon, but when they came on Friday night they failed after a short time.

"We have logged the fault with Scottish and Southern Electric as a high priority repair."

Diana Milne

Let there be no light!

THERE'S never a dark moment in a Swindon street where the lamps have been wired to be on 24 hours a day on purpose.

Residents living in Birchwood Road in Lower Stratton have had round-the-clock street lighting since June.

Originally the lights were faulty and Southern Electric engineers found that the only way to stop them from fusing once they were switched on was to keep them on permanently.

Pauline Weaver and her husband Kevin are both retired and live in the street. She said: "I think it is a terrible waste of money. It is ridiculous.

"You can send men to the moon but you can't get a street light fixed. It is just strange that they can't fix it. We have never had this problem before. I can't think it has gone on for so long."

Margaret Bunce, 65, lives on the same street, and said: "In this day and age when they are telling us that when you boil a kettle don't use too much water and not to leave the telly on standby, it is such a waste.

"They are on even now in the bright sunshine. It is awful."

A Southern Electric spokeswoman said: "We would agree that the situation is not ideal from an energy conserving point of view.

"We are in negotiation with the council on how to fix the problem."

A Swindon Council spokesman said "The failure of the street lights in Birchwood Road was reported to Swindon Council in June.

"Investigations showed that is was a supply fault and the problem was therefore passed to the electricity provider, Scottish and Southern Electric.

"As a temporary repair, Scottish and Southern Electric have wired the lights to be on all the time until they can schedule a permanent fix to allow the lights to go on and off as normal."