County Being Left in the Dark

2.44.53pm GMT Wed 28th Oct 2009

Cllr Zoé Patrick, Leader of the Opposition at Oxfordshire County Council, will be asking the Cabinet Member responsible for Street Lighting why the County Council does not have a proper Service Level Agreement with the electricity companies who fix broken street lights. An Agreement will set out timescales for repairing faults and not leave it to the companies' discretion.

The question comes about after some streets in Oxfordshire have been plunged into blackness for weeks, even months, at a time because there is a cable fault which has not been mended.

Residents are used to a fault reporting system in which bulbs are replaced within a specific time. However, if there is a cable fault, it is the electricity company's responsibility to repair it. This appears to be given a very low priority and people are left in the dark about why their street lights aren't working.

Cllr Patrick says, "There are whole areas all over the county which are left in darkness, and with the winter nights approaching this obviously effects the whole community. An elderly lady in Grove recently told me that she is unable to go out in the evenings until the street light outside her bungalow has been repaired. This is creating unnecessary anxiety amongst our vulnerable residents. The electricity companies need to be made responsible for fixing the faults within a given time."