Warwick businesses asked to keep lights on all night due to street light problems

Businesses are having to keep their lights on overnight on a Warwick housing estate after all but one street light has been left working.
The one street light working in Chase Meadow Square. Photo taken by Martyn Ashford.The one street light working in Chase Meadow Square. Photo taken by Martyn Ashford.
The one street light working in Chase Meadow Square. Photo taken by Martyn Ashford.

For the last two weeks Chase Meadow Square has been lit by one street light and in this time two people have tripped over because of lack of light.

Martyn Ashford, who is a town and district councillor has been reporting the issue to Cartwright Hands, the company which deals with the area.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He said: “I am very disappointed at the reaction of Cartwright Hands despite my efforts over a two week period and that of the Chase Meadow Resident’s Association who also made phone calls.

“Still Cartwright Hands seemed not to be realising the seriousness of the situation.

“Since the first reporting of this lighting problem, Cartwright Hands have played fast and loose with people’s safety, which is clearly in breach of health and safety regulations 1974, which gives people the right to have safe access and egress into a public area, lets hope common sense prevails.”

A spokesperson from the Chase Meadow Resident’s Association said: “All except one of the street lights on Chase Meadow Square have been out now for two or so weeks and we are aware that at least two people have had minor trips on the kerbs due to the dark conditions.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“The Chase Meadow Resident’s Association has been working with our district councillor, Warwick District Council and the managing agents of the Square to resolve the situation but we understand that a technical problem is causing the light outages.

“In the meantime the Community Centre, Doctors Surgery, the Nursery and the shops and takeaway outlets have been asked to keep their lights on overnight to provide alternative lighting.”

According to Cartwright Hands it is now more difficult to fix the problem compared to when the issue was first assessed,

A spokesperson from Cartwright Hands said: “We have been made aware of some (not all) of the external lights not working on the Chase Meadow car park and have sent two separate teams of electricians to the location to identify and fix the fault.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“They worked for most of two days (November 10 and November 14) on a fix and according to tenants contacted for feedback the fault had been resolved.

“We then received further information at the end of last week that some lights had gone out again and have sent contractors to try and find the fault.

“This job has been made more difficult due to a lack of wiring diagrams of the external electrics as the previous owners who went into administration did not send over this information on completion.

“The electrical contractors who wired the external areas and overall building contractor have also both gone into administration/liquidation in 2009 and 2011 respectively and without this information the alternative is going to involve closing the car park and digging numerous trial pits.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“We are working with Warwick District Council and adjacent landowners as some of the cables run through land not owned by our client to try get a solution as soon as possible.

“In the interim period we have requested goodwill from all adjacent buildings around the square car park that they keep their external lights on all night.”