Residents of Clinkard Ave say on some nights the street is plunged into complete darkness. Photo / Andrew Warner
Residents of Clinkard Ave say on some nights the street is plunged into complete darkness. Photo / Andrew Warner
A Rotorua resident is too scared to walk her neighbourhood at night and another fears for her children's safety because new street lights have left the area in near-darkness, they claim.
But Rotorua Lakes Council says it hasn't received any complaints from the women and the overhaul of street lightsthroughout the city will save about $360,000 annually.
The concerns come as the council carries out a $2.6 million plan to convert the city's street lights from sodium lights to LEDs.
The council's announcement of the plan said the LED lights have an average life of 20 years, provide constant light output and require less maintenance.
However, Glenholme resident Vanessa Symonds said the lights don't work the way they should.
Later that night Symonds noticed there was no light coming into her house from the street. Outside her house, even with moonlight, the street was darker than usual.
"It was like they'd just taken the bulbs out," Symonds said.
"I wouldn't ever walk under those street lights alone."
Symonds said she has lived on Clinkard Ave for about eight years and the council had "fixed something that wasn't broken".
"There was no reason for [the street lights] to be replaced."
Three other Clinkard Ave residents, who did not want to be named, said the street was particularly dark at night.
"It's been very, very dark. Some nights the street lights don't even come on," one resident said.
Another resident said she feared for the safety of her children, especially with the earlier onset of dark in the winter months.
"There are cars that speed all the way around this street," she said.
"They wouldn't be able to see and my kids want to bike on the footpath."
Another resident said she had noticed the streetlights were "less bright than before."
"I was wondering about this last night because I looked out and it was darker than usual."
Rotorua Lakes Council infrastructure and environment deputy chief executive Stavros Michael. Photo / File
Rotorua Lakes Council infrastructure and environment deputy chief executive Stavros Michael said street lights in the Glenholme area had been undergoing an upgrade to LED lights from December to April.
Michael said the council received 34 complaints during the last six months about street lights in Glenholme, but not specifically about Clinkard Ave.
"The majority of these were related to street lights being out."
Michael said the council spent "around $800,000" every year on street lights but he expects the LED lights to create savings.
"The projected savings from the $2.6m investment in the LED upgrade are around $360,000 [per year]."
The council had been replacing any failing sodium lights with LEDs for the past two to three years.
The update also said the LEDs would be a different colour and have less spillover light into residential properties.
Michael said the LED upgrade only applied to the council's local roads. Street lights on state highway networks and park or reserve roads were likely to have a combination of LEDs and non-LEDs.
While there had been no direct complaint from Clinkard Ave residents, the council would get a contractor to assess the lights "to ensure they are operating correctly".
"If residents have concerns about services such as lighting, these should be directed to [the] council so we can look into it," Michael said.
