'Total darkness' - Council promises to fix faulty streetlights
A faulty streetlight in Great Yarmouth town centre. - Credit: Jamie Skinner
A council has promised to fix a number of streetlights after a man claimed parts of Great Yarmouth town centre were being left in “total darkness” every night.
Jamie Skinner, 23, who lives in the Middle Market Road area of the town, said he reported an issue with faulty streetlights on a number of streets between the marketplace and the seafront to the borough council in August.
The communal area around Wellesley Road was "pretty much in total darkness" and it seemed to be a “postcode lottery” whether or not streetlights actually worked, he said.
"I know a lot of the lights in Bradwell have new LED lights whereas the ones in central Yarmouth don't," he added.
A broken streetlight in Great Yarmouth. - Credit: Jamie Skinner
“It's terrible for tourism if the seafront is unlit, most of the holiday accommodation is in that area. I think this area of Yarmouth is just forgotten about by the council."
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The borough council has now promised to repair the lights.
A spokesperson for the council said: “During the first lockdown, our ability to respond to footpath lighting failures was severely restricted however reports continued to come in. Once lockdown was lifted, the priority on safety grounds was fixing lighting issues in the immediate vicinity of roads, due to the mix of pedestrian and vehicular movement nearby.
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“Now that these works are complete, the areas surrounding passageways are being addressed as the next high priority and the lights mentioned within that area will be addressed among this phase as soon as practically possible.
“The vast majority of reports of faulty lighting received this year have already been rectified and we would like to thank those who reported these lighting issues. The same approach of prioritisation to address lighting issues is followed across the borough, regardless of location, with safety being the top consideration.”
Faulty streetlamp in Great Yarmouth town centre. - Credit: Jamie Skinner
Mr Skinner said that if tourists are walking back from the Market Gates area to the seafront they’re going to be presented with an extremely dim and dingy view of Yarmouth.
It’s important for areas to be lit because it helps fend off antisocial behaviour and flytipping, he added.
