LET THERE BE LIGHT

How many people does it take to change a light bulb? A great deal too many, according to furious residents of one Derby neighbourhood who were without street lighting for three months. Two broken lampposts plunged the Burton Road end of Gerard Street into darkness, prompting fears the area was becoming a "dangerous blackspot" and a magnet for troublemakers. A buck-passing wrangle over who was responsible for fixing the lights resulted in deadlock between the city council and East Midlands Electricity.

The deadlock was only broken when a group of 12 Gerard Street pensioners wrote to the Evening Telegraph asking for help. The pensioners, had already written four letters to the council's street lighting department about the problem. They also penned another four to the authority's housing department, one to a local councillor and one to the mayor's office. "Derby City Council has displayed a gross lack of concern, care and courtesy in not responding to our letters," the spokesman said.

Carol Mee, from Derby City Council, said, "We were told about the lighting situation in Gerard Street and put in a call to East Midlands Electricity on February 3, just a few days after we were contacted. We told them they needed to come and sort out a problem with the electricity. They don't normally take this long to respond." On contacting East Midlands Electricity, the Evening Telegraph was told the matter had been passed back to the council because, when contractors went out on March 14, they found there was no column to put the lights on.

A spokesman from East Midlands Electricity said its contractors were waiting for the council to get back in touch. Derby City Council said it was "in talks" with the electricity company to try to ascertain who was responsible for the lampposts. Eventually, after several calls from the Evening Telegraph, East Midlands Electricity took responsibility and said they would fix the lamp posts.