Residents left in the dark as faulty street lights remain broken for nearly two weeks

Sue Gascoine, 68, lives alone in Faversham Close and says the six streetlamps lining the path next to the lower car park in Frogmore Street have not been working since last Wednesday, November 4.

Mrs Gascoine, who has lived in her bungalow since 2001, said: “I volunteer at the hospice shop and I finish at 5pm, so I walk home in the dark but I can’t see a thing – it’s pitch black.

“I walk with a stick and there are leaves on the path at the moment, which makes it really slippy. If you can’t see where you’re putting your feet, you could get seriously hurt – it’s lethal.

“I think it should be a priority because there are elderly folk that live up here.

“It’s not good enough.”

Mrs Gascoine – who reported the issue to Herts County Council before it was passed on to UK Power Networks – says she now takes a torch with her whenever she goes out at night, but admits the darkness has left her feeling vulnerable at home.

She said: “My curtains are closed at 4pm, because I can’t see anything when I look outside – it’s unnerving.

“There were people setting off fireworks in the car park at 11.30pm the other night but when I looked out, I couldn’t see who was there. I just try not to think about it now.”

Mrs Gascoine said she was told by an engineer visiting the site that the issue was an ‘underground power fault’.

A spokesman for UK Power Networks, the firm which looks after the street lamps, said: “Engineers will visit the site as soon as possible to assess what has caused the fault and repair it.

“While we have 25 working days to fix such a fault, we always try to repair them well within that time frame and the engineers have said they aim to do this as soon as possible.”