I read in the Evening Post that Labour candidate for Redlands, Peter Kayes, has publicly backed our campaign for improved street lighting.
We launched our campaign to get RBC to upgrade outdated 'orange glow' street lighting last November.
I'm glad Mr Kayes has come on board but I'm disappointed it took him a full 6 months to the see the light. I'm also wondering why he didn't take the opportunity to campaign on the issue when he was a Councillor for Redlands ward.
I remember it was an issue I raised with the Council in 2005 (before I was elected) as it was so clearly a problem to many residents.
Slightly confusingly he suggests that Redlands residents should get in touch with him, despite advice from his colleague, Cllr Tom Crisp (Lead Member for Transport) that residents should write to their local councillors.
We recently wrote to all residents living in around Erleigh Road about our campaign, encouraging them to report any problem lighting to their Lib Dem team, but it was nice of Mr Kayes to promote our efforts.
Perhaps his confusion lies in the fact that Cllr Crisp's comments came in direct response to a question on street lighting in Redlands tabled by my colleague Glenn Goodall .
As far as i can remember Mr Kayes wasn't present at the Council meeting.
You can read Glenn's question to Council and Cllr Crisp's response in full here.
What Mr Kayes failed to mention in his press release was the fact that the Labour Council's budget for streetlighting does not allow for a significant number of streets to benefit lighting upgrades.
The £500,000 that has been set aside will in actual fact only pay for one lighting improvement scheme in each ward!
The Lib Dems highlighted this funding shortfall back in January.
Throughout the year, we have been working hard to secure funding to improve street lighting via the Safer Reading Campaign budget.
So far we have succeeded in getting lighting upgrades on Lancaster Close, Cintra Avenue and most recently Muirfield Close. Read more about these successes here.
As far as I'm aware, neither Mr Kayes nor his colleague Cllr Riaz Chaudhri, has submitted any bids to the Safer Reading Campaign this year. This is despite the fact that this funding is available to anyone who wishes to apply for it for small community projects.
There is also no mention by Mr Kayes of the poor fault repair record of RBC's chosen contractor, SEC.
We receive numerous reports from residents across the ward complaining about lights not working for long periods.
Cllr Ricky Duveen and I highlighted this issue earlier this year. Ricky asked the specific questionr:
'What steps are the Council taking to ensure that SEC improves its performance to meet the required standard (i.e. the top quartile of 5 days average repair time of 5 days) and to ensure this contract delivers value for money for council tax payers, given that the average time taken by SEC Lighting Services to repair streetlights in the Borough averaged 8.7 days last year?
Thankfully, after Lib Dem pressure the Council and SEC is putting more resource into improving this poor performance.
Anyway, it's always good to find support (and free publicity) for our campaign from unexpected quarters!
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