Residents claim faulty street lights have made them virtual prisoners in their own homes.

For the past ten weeks, residents living in the Frank Clater Close area of Colchester said they have been afraid to go out after dark.

And despite appeals to Colchester Council, the problem has still not been put right.

Dorothy Lee, 61, said she tripped over a man lying in the alleyway running between Frank Clater Close and Ipswich Road, because lights were not working.

She said she was not the only victim.

Mrs Lee said: "I have a disabled son and his carers have to walk through the alleyway, and they are frightened. They are only young girls."

Mrs Lee said she had been in contact with Colchester Council between three and five times a week, and electricians had visited. But the lights remained off.

Area housing manager Gordon Steed said staff thought they had cured the problem, but, on further investigation, found that three damaged armoured cables underground kept tripping the system off.

"There is a safety issue in working on cables in the rain, and there is an electricity sub-station nearby to avoid," he explained.

The council, he added, would be writing to Mrs Lee and her neighbours explaining the situation and begging their tolerance.

Published Wednesday, January 22, 2003

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