Request
Details of the maintainence contract for street lighting in the Balmoral Road, Edward Road, The Rise area of Kingsdown. Details of when street light in this area were last inspected and the inspection schedule.
Response
Street lighting is not routinely inspected for maintenance unless a fault is raised by a member of the public. The lights reported are grouped together when approximately 25 have been reordered, which equates to approximately 1-2 days’ worth of works for a streetlighting contractor to attend repair/replace (this is due to standard day rate fees and economies of scale).
In the instance of the Balmoral Road area, the type of lighting that has failed here following inspection is a style of lantern that is covered under warranty due to salt corrosion and water ingress. The Council have 2000 lanterns of this design across the district, and unfortunately hundreds have been failing in this way which has led to a drawn-out process to have the lights tested and agreed by the contractor/supplier to replace under the agreed terms of the contract. This has taken considerable time to resolve and although local authorities are not legally obliged to provide streetlights on the highway the Council is firmly committed to ensuring all these lights are replaced and lighting restored.