'Street light left on for nearly six weeks'

10:00am Sunday 29th July 2007

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ANGRY Wycombe resident Jack Wilkins has slammed council officials after a street light was left on all day for more than five weeks, writes Ann-Marie Canavan.

The retired publisher, pictured above, who has lived in Havenfield Road for more than ten years, is furious that nothing has been done to fix the light.

The 75-year-old said: "The light has been on day and night for almost six weeks and I tried to get the council to do something about it.

"My main concern is that with all this information about carbon footprints and emissions, the light has just been left to waste energy.

"Someone needs to be responsible for this and do something about it. It is just diabolical."

Mr Wilkins said the warden-controlled area had the reverse problem a while ago when a street light in Havenfield Road was left off for three weeks before being fixed.

He added: "It really is just such a waste, you hear of council taxes going up so why can't something like this be fixed.

"I just want to see the lights on at the appropriate time"

Mr Wilkins, a grandad-of-six, added that when he first called Wycombe District Council (WDC) about the problem he was told that it was a matter for Buckinghamshire County Council.

But on Tuesday the Free Press discovered the light did actually belong to WDC and over the weekend it had been switched off.

Becky Wotherspoon, WDC spokesman, said: "The majority of streetlights within the Wycombe district are managed by Buckinghamshire County Council, however, a small amount are the responsibility of either the town or parish councils or Wycombe District Council. As this particular light is on a housing footpath it is the responsibility of Wycombe District Council.

"We would like to apologise to this resident for the delay in dealing with this problem. A contractor will be visiting the site tomorrow (July 25) to carry out the repairs required."

She urged people to take a note of broken streetlights' numbers (on the column) and to report their location.