Hook Road Lighting - update

11.19.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 19th Jun 2008

Promised completion dates have come and gone.

Ever since 17 street lights failed in Hook Road early in January, County Councillor Colin Taylor has been chasing Surrey County Council to get them repaired. The problem was identified as a cable failure, necessitating 18 new lamp posts. Promised completion dates came and went. So at the June Local Committee Colin demanded a full explanation of the apparent lack of urgency.

It seems that the problem is one of danger to the EDF workers struggling to make the necessary electrical connections in the narrow footways, not just from traffic but more from the tangle of other buried services, especially those for telephones and cable TV. Surrey Highways said that all but 3 of the 18 new lights had now been connected, but the last three required staff from EDF, BT and Virgin to work together under SCC supervision and this cannot be arranged before 7th July.

Colin pointed out that actually 12 street lights were not working, not just the 3 mentioned. It seems the others have failed for different reasons. Colin has provided a detailed list of the 12 unlit lamps and SCC have promised to deal with the other 9 separately.