Street lighting repairs in the Maureen Avenue area

Following a number of reports from residents that street lights are burning constantly in the area around Maureen Avenue in Blackhall the parish clerk has passed on to us the following information received from the street lighting section at county hall:

Street Lighting have confirmed that the problem with the lights in the Maureen Avenue area of Blackhall Rocks is nothing to do with a fault or repair - issue is that Northern Power Grid have upgraded the overhead power supply cables as part of their routine

upgrading/maintenance programme but have left the supply permanently live which means that Street Lighting can’t reprogramme the photocells which control the switching regime hence the lights are burning permanently.

Usual arrangement is that NPG notify Street Lighting in advance of the cable replacement so that works can be coordinated but in this case they renewed the cables without any notice to DCC. The NPG Area Manager has acknowledged their mistake and assured DCC that he will attend to the issue as a matter of urgency.

It all seems a little ironic to us that the street lights in some areas are switched on permanently while we are continuing the uphill struggle at county hall to have the lighting returned to the roads linking our villages! However, we acknowledge that in this instance the fault lies elsewhere and we look forward to the street lights in Maureen Avenue being repaired by NPG as soon as possible.