Council sees the light after 16 dark months

The dodgy lamp post was reported in January 2015 when it stopped working after being hit by a car.

Because it was sited near a Fishermead roundabout, road safety was being compromised, said residents.

But the matter dragged on and on – and meanwhile three other lights on the roundabout stopped working.

“I have continuously warned of the dangers of the roundabout being in darkness but the council failed to respond ,” said one householder.

“As a result there have been several accidents there, and on two occasions police and ambulance have been called,” he said.

Last week two council workers finally arrived to replace the damaged light, which is at the junction of Bossiney Place and Talland Avenue.

“They put a new lamppost up but they left the damaged one in place right next to it,” said the resident.

“They also failed to repair the other non-functional lights.”

“I spoke with the worker and they told me they had just replaced a lamp post in Newport Pagnell that was reported TWO years ago,” he claimed.

A spokesman for MK Council said the replacement of the lamp had actually been brought FORWARD from the planned date.

He said the council was currently running a city-wide programme to replace old, inefficient columns and insert new low energy LED lights

The spokesman added: “In the case of this particular street light, it was included in the programme for replacement. However, following a road traffic collision which resulted in damage to the column, this particular replacement was brought forward rather than undertake a separate repair to the column which would then have to be replaced,” he added.

The council was “grateful” to have received the feedback on the other street lights , said the spokesman.

“We have investigated the particular concerns raised. Our records indicate only one report raised in November 2015.

“Our contractor attended the site but at the time could not find anything wrong.

“However, we asked our contractor to revisit the site again last week to check all the street lights and they repaired two defective units.”

The council spokesman concluded: “We would like to thank and encourage all residents to report any street lighting faults they see to us via our website. “

He promised: “This will ensure that all faults are fixed as quickly as possible.”