Sunningdale resident in the dark over street lights outage
The Sunningdale community has been plagued with constant street light outages says resident and ward councillor.
A SUNNINGDALE resident said he is at his wits’ end after numerous failed attempts trying to get the eThekwini Municipality to fix several defective street lights in the area.
Malcolm Moran said that five lights on Meadow Lane have been out for more than two years and he has also found a number of broken street lights on Fernlea Road.
“This has gone on for more than 920 days, by my calculation. The street light outside the complex I live in, and several others on the road, haven’t been fixed, despite it being reported. It is deeply frustrating. Terry Holmes from the Glenhills Ratepayers Association has been extremely helpful in trying to assist me. I can understand if repairs can take a few months, but two years is ridiculous,” Moran said.
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“I’ve logged several faults, gotten reference numbers and my hopes were lifted when I saw a contractor attending to lights in the area. To my disappointment, many of the street lights were not fixed at all. I’ve only been concentrating on my immediate vicinity, but I’m sure other residents are having the same problem. We pay quite high rates in the area and one would hope a simple thing, like a street light outage, would be solved quickly,” he said.
The ward 110 councillor, Aamir Abdul said the Sunningdale community has been plagued with constant street light outages.
“The eThekwini Municipality have given the community a myriad of reasons for the lack of service delivery, ranging from limited staff to not enough replacements parts to fix the problem. In recent months, I have worked closely with the electricity department to compile a list of all non-functional street lights in the area. The municipality has agreed to finally fix these outstanding issues. However, progress is notably slow and, in some cases, non-existent.
“We submitted a list of approximately 100 non-functional street lights in November last year and, to date, only approximately 25% of the list has been resolved. This is in addition to the numerous reports sent independently by residents from as early on as January 2021. There have been cases where street lights were repaired and worked for only a few days or weeks and then were off again. This is an ongoing issue in the area that is becoming a real problem,” he said.
The eThekwini Municipality failed to comment at the time of going to print.
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