ALMOST five out of six street lighting faults in Helensburgh and Lomond took more than 10 days to fix in the first three months of 2020, according to new data published by Argyll and Bute Council.

A report has also revealed that the resources for fixing faulty street lamps in the Helensburgh area must be brought from Dunoon before repairs can be carried out.

The target figure set by Argyll and Bute Council for street lighting repairs being carried out within 10 days was 75 per cent - but in Helensburgh and Lomond the figure achieved was just 16 per cent.

The figure across Argyll and Bute in the same period was 41 per cent, also against a 75 per cent target.

The figures, which form part of the area’s scorecard for the last quarter of the 2019-20 financial year, running from January 1 to March 31, will be considered by Helensburgh and Lomond Area Committee at its meeting via Skype on Thursday, September 17.

READ MORE: Council report lays bare the scale of street lighting failures in Helensburgh - and the time it takes to fix faults

A commentary beside the figures for Helensburgh and Lomond states: “Street lighting works resumed on an emergency basis only – from mid-May onwards, having entered lockdown on March 23.

“There was a backlog in faults which meant that some dark lamps recoded as completed in May/June related to those reported in March. These were therefore outwith target times by a considerable amount.

“The resources for the Helensburgh and Lomond area are based in Dunoon, therefore there is an added travel element to the reactive repairs timescale which means targets may be missed.”

On the overall Argyll and Bute figure, the council also said: “There were a number of cable faults which needed to be pursued with power companies and the team have been working with SSE to get these resolved.

“Covid-19 further compounded work to progress repairs in March as staff were working to dangerous defects only.”

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