THE saga of faulty street and walkway lighting in south Grays and Thurrock Council's failure not only to get to grips with the problem, but also deny it, continues.

Thurrock Nub News has reported several times recently on the continuing criticism of the counil by local ward councillors over areas of their Grays Riverside ward that are left in darkness.

Lists of faulty lights have been provided to the authority by Cllrs Jane Pothecary, Martin Kerin and Tony Fish - plus reviews of street lighting from local residents and community forum members have been submitted.

The council's attitude in some instances has been to deny there are faults, then acknowledge them and say they have been repaired – then say everything has been fixed even though it hasn't.

The lack of honesty has vexed Cllr Pothecary, who recently went on another walk round the area to highlight the problem, particularly on the stairwells and balconies of council homes.

In response the council has now acknowledged the concerns and that lights have not been fixed and it has pledged a work programme beginning in September to finally resolve the problems.

Cllr Pothecary says she remains shocked at the lack of light available for residents and the council's lax attitude to getting to grips with the issue.

After touring the area she told Nub News: "It is shocking just how many balcony and stairwell lights are out of action and defective. This is unfair on my residents who have paid for this service and are not receiving it. 

"The darkness is bad enough at this time of year, but will be intolerable come autumn and winter. Ultimately, why should my residents go without much-needed light on the balconies and stairwells? The council need to act urgently and give my residents the service they pay for."

The council has confirmed to Cllr Kerin that it is now aware of the problems and has a detailed list of what needs fixing.

An officer says: "I can confirm that the council's electrical engineer carried out a site visit and has confirmed lights requiring repair.

"An appointment for the lighting repairs to be attended to with required access equipment has been scheduled for week commencing 5 September, due to the volume of works that need to be carried out and to avoid conflict with already planned works.

"Please be assured the above repairs will be monitored through to completion by the technical services team, in liaison with the Mears electrical team."

"We can also confirm the housing department has recently commissioned a separate contractor to identify, map, reference and survey all housing owned lighting assets. Once this has been completed, this will form an asset register, which will include ongoing maintenance of lighting across housing land as part of planned batch programmes."