A teenager who suffered a torn ear drum in an assault in Llandrindod Wells claims his friends could not see the incident because the street lights had been switched off.
The 17-year-old, who does not wish to be named, claims he was punched three times to the head during the attack at about 1am on Sunday morning on Trefonnen, by someone he knows.
But his three friends, who were sat nearby in his car, were unable to see exactly what happened and act as witnesses because the lights had been switched off by Powys County Council as part of its cost-cutting exercise.
The teenager was in his car with friends when another youth came up and told him to turn his music down. The youngster got out of his car to remonstrate with the youth who then smashed a football into the 17-year-old driver’s window.
As he walked towards the youth, he was punched to the head three times, tearing his eardrum. The injury will take six to eight weeks to heal.
The youth’s mother said: “When he told me about the attack I said ‘didn’t your friends see what happened?’ and he said it was too dark. I did not realise that the lights had been turned off but when I went out on Sunday, I saw the front page of the Journal and that is when I realised; that was why it was so dark.
“We feel that if the street lights had been on things would have been different because his friends would have seen the incident. As it is we have not been to the police because there are no witnesses.
“It makes me so angry. It’s only a matter of time – people will see what will happen now the lights have been switched off. There will be more crime. It’s an open invitation to criminals, we are providing the right conditions for crime.
“Let’s not forget the police. They are so up against it anyway and now we want them to keep the streets safe without the help of street lights.”
Mark Bradley from Bradleys Hardware Store witnessed his car being stolen from his bedroom window at 1am on Saturday morning.
Mr Bradley, who lives on Dyffryn Road, said: “Because of the lack of light it was impossible to identify the thieves.
“In the good old days, that useless piece of scrap metal my car was parked beneath used to be a lamp standard bathing the area in a warm orange light and possibly may have prevented the crime occurring.
“Luckily, thanks to the swift actions of Llandrindod Wells police, my car was recovered before daylight, but the officers, on foot, had difficulty chasing the thief through the blacked-out streets.
“I hope we are not the start of a growing night-time statistic in Llandrindod Wells.”
Meanwhile, a retired Dyfed Powys Police officer, who was also the Crime Prevention Officer for Powys for three years, said the decision to switch off 67 per cent of street lights in the county was the “craziest decision I have ever heard”.
Lights swtich-off leaves councillors in the dark
Phil Price was a police officer for 31 years and Crime Prevention Officer between 1984 and 1987, he said: “This is the craziest decision that I have ever heard, totally irresponsible.
“Lights are the number one weapon in crime prevention and if they are doing it to save a few thousand pounds a year, that’s mad. It goes totally against the best crime prevention advice. The asylum is being overrun by the lunatics.”
One Llandrindod Wells resident has started a campaign to stop recycling until the street lights are reinstated.
John Devereux of Llethyr Bryn placed all his rubbish in a black bin bag instead of recycling on Wednesday morning and displayed a sign saying ‘no street lights, no recycling”.
He said Powys County Council needs to meet Welsh Assembly Government recycling targets and to do that they rely on the goodwill of householders, so if people stop recycling, the council will miss its targets and may change their minds.
Mr Devereux said: “At the moment people in Powys have low insurance premiums because it is a low crime area but how long will it take the insurance companies to realise we have no lights and put the premiums up.
“Under the Road Traffic Act it states that in a 30mph zone there must be a street light every 66yards, the fact that the county council has decommissioned the lights makes me wonder if they are breaking that rule.”
Local county councillor Gary Price, who has launched an on-line petition against the lights switch off and has already received over 120 signatures, has found a light that is burning brightly even in sunlight hours.
The lamp is one in a row of extinguished lights at the entrance to the town’s Rock Park at Norton Terrace and Rock House Road.
A spokesman for Powys County Council said the light is likely to have remained illuminated due to overgrown trees and promised its staff would investigate.
But Councillor Sarah Millington was also enraged that County Hall had been ‘lit up like a Christmas tree’ at night during the week, although they had been turned off by Tuesday.
Chairman of the council’s Board Michael Jones said the external lights at County Hall are fitted with a timing mechanism that goes out between midnight, but he said internal lights had been left on because IT work had been carried out there. He said it was the caretaker’s responsibility to make sure they were turned off after staff had left.
He said a certain amount of light had to be left on for security reasons.
Christmas in Llandrindod Wells could have been cancelled if a proposition put before the Town Council had been carried on Tuesday evening.
Councillor Price said the town should not erect or illuminate any festive lights this Christmas, but instead use £8,000 earmarked in the budget to pay for some of the towns lights to be switched back on.
He told members that there would be uproar from people affected by lights that had been switched off outside their homes if they saw festive lights illuminated in the town centre.
The Chairman of the Festive Lights Committee, Councillor Tony Phillips said that he would not be happy to see monies used to provide local services, that should be proved by Powys County Council.
The proposal by Councillor Price failed to get a seconder from his fellow members.
Councillor Mike Hodges said in some areas of the town, the Ridgebourne, Trefonnen and Troedyrhiw people were scared to walk on the pavements and in many cases were now walking down the middle of the road in fear.
He said he had offered to buy one of his shop staff a miners lamp.
Councillor Leslie Hope raised concern for people living in the old Penybont Road where there are no lights and he said one lady steps out of her house into total darkness.
Builth Wells Town Council are writing to the county council to complain about the way the big switch off has been handled and communicated, and to ask if there are systems in place to monitor any increases in accidents and crime, and whether there are any safety measures the council could provide such as fluorescent jackets for children.
The Mayor Councillor Geoff York said: “I don’t necessarily thing its all bad, what I think is very bad is the way it was rushed through with three different messages and two different start dates. The way is has been communicated and handled has been dreadful.”
Councillor Jonathan Morgan called it ‘a complete bloody shambles’. “It does not take into account short pieces of road with perhaps only four lights and then you take two or three out. There is a road safety and public safety problem.”
Councillor Russell Harris added: “This is a terrible way to go about communicating and bringing down the carbon footprint. There has been no consultation over which lights have gone off, the execution of it is a right mish mash.”
Councillor Adrian Jones said a few years ago the town council had paid about £1800 for three lights and they had been switched off. The council agreed to write to the county council and ask them to switch them back on or give the town council its money back.
Councillor Dennis Jones said with the winter coming the county council needed to think again and get around and see what its going to be like when its icy.
Councillor Gwilym Evans, Board Member for Local Services at Powys County Council said: “The council is responsible for more than 14,000 street lights on county roads and is facing huge increases in energy costs at a time when budgets are under increasing pressure.
“We had considered moving to part-night lighting and other measures to tackle the budget problem but the scale of energy cost increases and time required to carry out the work has meant taking a more radical approach.
“The Board decided that the only way to keep within budget with the scale of increases was to switch off the majority of lights in some areas. That work has now started.”
Within a month the lights will have been switched off in all areas of Powys, as part of the rolling programme.
