Blantyre Community Committee in recent weeks felt it had a duty to share its civic concerns to South Lanarkshire Council, regarding the amount of recent complaints and current status of Blantyre’s Street lighting.
With Blantyre’s Street lights laying with the responsibility of the council, faults are relied upon being reported by the public. Whilst some have been reported individually, it took our intervention to collate all this information and highlight exactly how collectively it represents a danger to the public. The concerns were two-fold.
a) The dimly lit streets due to recent changeover to LED bulbs and
b) The sheer amount of broken lamps or lights not working at all.
Writing to local councillors on behalf of all of Blantyre’s residents, we commented, “Primary routes like Main Street, Auchinraith Road and Glasgow Road are now so dimly lit, it is practically impossible at night to see the difference between pavement and road. Light is only provided using LEDs under the lamp itself , the new LEDs giving a far lesser, and dangerously low level of luminosity.
We have been approached in recent weeks by Blantyre residents who were separately almost involved in accidents with pedestrians, blaming they simply couldn’t see them due to the change in the type of lights.
Whilst we understand the economics of changing over to LEDs and saving money, it should not be done at the expense of putting Blantyre residents into harms way. Additionally such low levels of lighting are a burglar’s dream, with Blantyre now steeped into darkness. We strongly suspect there will be a correlation between the installation of LEDs and a rising wave of theft crimes.”
A Committee spokesperson relayed to Councillors, “We are suggesting that the main routes of Main Street, Glasgow Road and Auchinraith Road are given priority with a type of lamp that is even slightly brighter than as current. This concern and solution is provided to you BEFORE any accident happens and we trust will be duly considered.”
Also contributing significantly to the current darkness of Blantyre each evening, are the many, street lights that have no lamp bulb or broken lamps. When our data came back from sampled information from Blantyre’s residents, we were shocked to see this is as many as one HUNDRED street lamps in this town, not working, in darkness each evening on main public footpaths and roadways. This shocking statistic is both unacceptable and dangerous to pedestrians, as well as a clear invite for crime.
The Committee spokesperson continued, “We know of some cases where residents will not walk on particular streets anymore, feeling unsafe in the evening. In another case a lady with diminished eyesight now won’t go out at all in the evening. Other instances of how this is affecting people includes the previously mentioned near miss vehicle collisions. Quite literally, a fatality on Blantyre’s roads is WAITING TO HAPPEN due to these LED lights, particularly on Main Street, Auchinraith road and Glasgow Road!
In the immediate interests of public safety, the Blantyre Community Committee have determined 53 of these broken street lamps as a priority to be fixed, to get the town lit again. These are as follows:
x8 on Greenhall Road
x1 Main Street at Junction with Douglas Street
x1 Main Street at Masonic Lodge
x1 Main Street at Flowers to Go
x1 Main Street at Blakelys
x1 Main Street at Family Shopper
x1 Main Street near top of Auchinraith Road
x1 Whistleberry Roundabout
x1 Glasgow Road at Lidl
x1 Glasgow Road at slipway on to A725
x1 Glasgow Road at top of Forrest Street
x1 Auchinraith Road near entrance to GW Printers
x6 Auchinraith Road near underpass to Springwells
x1 Carlowrie Avenue nr number 15
x1 Zambesi Drive, at the corner.
x1 Pieter Place, off Stonefield Road.
x1 Fortinghall Road
x1 Baronhall Drive
x1 Winton Crescent near lockups
x1 Ansdell Avenue near nr 14
x4 Glasgow Road in front of Clydeview Shopping Centre
x3 Ness Drive
x1 Afton Gardens
x1 Broompark Road near Barnhill
x1 Bardykes Road near Hoolets Nest Pub
x1 Welsh Drive
x1 Nursery Place near Muir Street
x2 Devondale Avenue
x2 Bardykes Road in front of the Cottage Hospital
x2 Harkins Avenue
x3 Burnside Crescent
TOTAL: 53nr
Given darker nights are already here, The Committee strongly recommended to South Lanarkshire Council that these are actioned in the first instance.
Thankfully, concerns were listened to. Councillor John McNamee replied within just a few hours of receipt of the letter, assuring that concerns would be taken seriously and that the communication had been passed to the Head of Roads and Transportation for action. John told the Committee, “The arguments you gave made are valid and I would like to see the Council look at all options to provide community reassurance.”
We’ll be keeping you posted on developments. Thanks to Blantyre Telegraph for this assistance with this issue.
Have your say. Have YOU been affected by dim or missing street lights in recent months?
