Lights out at last for residents (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Lights out at last for residents

5:00pm Friday 3rd February 2012 in News By Craig Jones

A Colerne man is winning his battle to have three street lights switched off after beaming non-stop for a year John Hipkin, 82, of Cherry Road, has repeatedly reported the complaint regarding the lights on the Southwood Estate running in the daytime to Wiltshire Council.

Last week, the council finally sent a team to investigate the problem and repaired one of the faulty lights in Poplar Way.

Mr Hipkin, who has lived on the estate for more than 15 years, said: “I’m very impressed the council has finally come out to see the problem, in little over a year too.

“I contacted the Gazette & Herald to help with this problem after reporting the lights to the council on numerous occasions and nothing being done. I’m very pleased that contacting the paper has now borne fruit.”

There are still street lights running all day on the north side of the estate, including two which have been on since Christmas, but Wiltshire Council has said the maintenance for those lamps is looked after by the Ministry of Defence, which used to own the homes on the estate.

A MoD spokesman said: “Our maintenance contractor provides a 24-hour helpline to report faults but they have not received any reports about the street lighting in Colerne.

“However, we will be investigating this matter now that it has been brought to our attention.”

Wiltshire Council said it will send out another maintenance team to the estate at night to make sure the repaired light is working.

Mr Hipkin said: “The military obviously haven’t felt responsible for looking after their lights in the past but hopefully now they’ll come out and repair them.”

Anyone wishing to report the pole numbers and street names of faulty street lights can call Wiltshire Council on 0800 232 323.

Wiltshire Council said two of its street lights in Pinewood Way are still faulty and that a maintenance team would be going out to repair them soon.