SOME of the equipment used to keep Argyll and Bute’s streets lit up at night dates back to before the Second World War, a report has revealed.
Despite a £3 million programme to replace outdated lightbulbs, an Argyll and Bute Council report says the authority has received “large numbers” of complaints about street lights remaining dark.
It has now been decided that the faults lie with cables, and to a lesser extent with the deteriorating condition of ageing lampposts.
The report will be debated by the council’s environment, development and infrastructure committee at a virtual meeting on Thursday, March 4.
Executive director Kirsty Flanagan said in her report: “Argyll and Bute Council are responsible for the maintenance of over 14,500 street lights and associated lighting columns, control pillars and lit road signs.
“Over the last three years we have engaged in the LED Replacement Project with over £3 million invested into replacing outdated and energy inefficient luminaires. This has proved very successful with reductions in power costs.
LATEST HEADLINES: Police launch probe after break-in at Helensburgh Rugby Club
“Despite the success of the luminaire replacement, we continue to see large amounts of complaints in respect of dark lamps.
“We have investigated this and concluded that the majority of faults are now with cabling and to a lesser extent column degeneration.
“A significant part of our lighting columns and cabling date back between 50-80 years which is well outside any operating window for replacement or efficient working life.”
Ms Flanagan’s report recommends that the council should take its concerns about street lighting in the area to the Northern Roads Collaboration (NRC) joint committee – a group of seven councils in the rural north and west of mainland Scotland – in a bid to speed up the pace of repairs.
Her report continues: “A large but undetermined quantity of the inventory of our street lights is still powered from the ‘5th core’ electrical supply system, which is often pre-Second World War in origin.
“This is not a unique issue to Argyll and Bute and does appear to be prevalent elsewhere in Scotland, although largely but not completely superseded in England.
“This is a hidden problem, which has been more and more prevalent over the last five to ten years and manifests itself in frequent power failures.
“The power suppliers, Scottish Power and Scottish and Southern Energy, have increasingly been unable to expend excessive resources exposing and repairing these individual street lighting power connections. This results in both single dark lamp and dark section fault reporting.
“Power cable defects contribute to numerous of the lighting faults we experience. It is proposed that the policy lead for roads and infrastructure [Councillor Rory Colville] supported by the head of roads and infrastructure [Jim Smith] take this matter to the Northern Roads Collaboration.”
The collaboration meets the day after the council committee meeting.
Ms Flanagan added that Councillor Colville and Mr Smith would speak to the NRC’s other members “with a view to lobbying power companies for a more responsive approach to resolving underground cable faults”.
READ MORE: Catch up with all the latest Helensburgh and Lomond news headlines by clicking here
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here