BAMBOOZLED residents have been left in the dark over why four new street lights in Leamington are yet to be turned on – two years after they were installed.
The lights were mounted into the pavement in early October 2023 near the junction of Radford Road and St Mary’s Road to replace old lights.
But since then, no work to make them operational has been carried out by Warwickshire County Council’s highways department and the lights remain off.
Residents have contacted the highways department directly and through their local councillors regularly during to ask why these street lights have not yet been connected and have received a variety of excuses, from blaming E.On backlogs to internal departmental miscommunication, but no progress has been made.
And in a strange twist, highways department contractors have even been seen periodically using a cherry picker to inspect the bulbs of the unconnected street lights.
One resident told the Observer: “It’s an absolute joke. How difficult can it be? Why install them without a plan and schedule to power them? It’s clear that while the council are happy to increase tax rates at well over the rate of inflation and waste their time and our money arguing about what flags to fly or ban outside the council offices, getting the basics right seems to be well beyond their abilities.”
The upcoming roadworks map page of the highways department shows nothing scheduled for connecting the street lights for at least the next three months.
Another resident added: “If they don’t hook them up soon, they’ll need to plan replacements for lights that never worked.”
A WCC spokesperson said unforeseen circumstances and operational delays had affected the completion of the work which was scheduled to be completed on November 3 and November 4.
