Report by Mike Sivier
Vulnerable people are being put in danger by Powys County Council’s new policy of switching off two in every three streetlights, people in towns all over Mid Wales have claimed.
In Knighton, a senior home carer said she and her 12-strong team were afraid to go out visiting people in the evenings because the streets were too dark.
A woman in the same town who is registered blind and physically disabled, said the council had turned off the streetlight outside her house, putting her in more danger.
And in Rhayader, town councillors were told of a series of incidents in the town, said to be caused by the lack of lighting.
Residents and councillors in Llandrindod Wells have already started a petition to get lights switched back on.
Ruth Morgan, a carer from Knighton, said she and the carers working with her had become scared to go to work because “half the places we go are now very dark”.
She explained: “In some of these places, especially where there are trees, you don’t feel very safe. One of my carers was frightened because she heard a dog but couldn’t see it. We have mobiles but there is no signal in some of these places.
“We went around to see how dark it was and in some places there are four steps leading up to the houses and big stones in the way.”
She said: “As a home carer I have to be responsible to my workers. We start at 6pm and are out until about 9pm or 9.30pm, which means it’s soon going to be dark when we go out, as well as when we come back. We’ll have to be supplied with torches, I think.
“We should have the lights on until midnight and then shut them all off. We had the lights on everywhere all summer but now we need them, there aren’t any. Not everyone finishes work at 5.30pm.”
She added: “I did write a letter to the council about it. They’ve turned as many as five lights off in a row.”
Fellow Knighton resident Audrey Powell lost most of her sight 13 years ago, and has also had her left leg amputated. She is registered disabled with the county council but said the authority had put her at risk by switching off the light outside her house.
“I’m now totally unable to go out at night because it is totally dark for me,” she said. “As the winter draws on, it’s going to get worse and I will be a prisoner in my own home. Powys Council are putting very vulnerable people in danger.”
Father-of-two Mark Leek, of Radnor Drive, Knighton, said he was going out of his gate at 4.50pm the morning after the lights were switched off in complete darkness when he fell over one of the county council’s own ‘No Ball Games’ signs.
Mr Leek, who was working an early shift, injured all the knuckles on one hand and smashed his mobile phone and watch in the fall. A few hours later his 18-year-old son Gareth also tripped over the sign but was uninjured.
“Switching off the lights is a very dangerous thing to do. It’s an accident waiting to happen. We pay our council taxes which should be enough to pay for lighting,” said Mr Leek.
Town councillors in Rhayader heard reports of many problems in the town at their September meeting, ranging from the steep steps on Brynheulog, Church Street, Maes-y-Deri and Maes-y-Nant, to the area around Caeherbert Lane where there is now darkness along the pavement access to the doctors’ surgery.
They agreed to undertake evening walks after dark to see for themselves the problems around the town – taking a map of the lights and their numbers, and noting changes they would wish to see – before making recommendations to Powys County Council.
Brecon and Radnorshire’s MP, Roger Williams, and AM Kirsty Williams, said they had received a steady stream of complaints about the switch-off.
“I have correspondence from the council that confirms it is happening to meet a budget-shortfall, not to save the planet,” said Mr Williams. “Local residents are understandably angry, and I am very concerned about all the community safety issues this move raises.”
Kirsty Williams added: “Evidence is growing that lights are being turned off even where they really are needed, such as over flights of steps on housing estate footways and so on.
“I urge the council to re-think now, before the whole county is plunged into a true age of darkness for the winter.”
A spokesman for the county council said the situation was flexible and the authority could be persuaded to switch some lights back on.
“We said all along that the situation would be reviewed, and we’ve already had a couple of cases where sheltered accommodation was nearby, which we class as sensitive areas, so the lights in those areas were restored,” he said. “But if we switch one on in one area, another has to go out elsewhere in order to make the £225,000 savings we have to find.”
He said the police were also monitoring the situation to ensure there was no increase in crime or anti-social behaviour.
• See letters page 14 of Mid Wales Journal, October 3, 2008. Email mqueally@shropshirestar.co.uk with your comments or views.
