Lights let-down for East Preston traders

East Preston Parish Council has been told that it can put up only four of its 13 Christmas light motifs, after West Sussex County Council handed responsibility for the county’s lampposts to a private company earlier this year.

Festive trimmings are also in doubt in Rustington, where traders and councillors were told they had to pay £600 to have all lampposts safety checked before any lights could go up, just weeks before the village’s Christmas event, on November 27.

The county council entered into a private finance initiative (PFI) with Southern Electric Contracting (SEC), meaning that the company has responsibility for street lighting for 25 years, in April, but the implications have only just been made clear.

Andy Cooper, vice-chairman of both Rustington Parish Council and Rustington Chamber of Trade, said: “We did not find this out until the end of October, when we had a meeting with SEC to talk about the lights.
“It’s a bloody disgrace. The chamber of trade will have to pay for the survey, which will cost £60 each for 10 posts, but it’s money we do not have, and doesn’t even guarantee that the lights will go up.”

Tracy Khoo, assistant clerk to East Preston Parish Council, said that she was informed by an e-mail, from the county council, on October 22, one week after Andy’s meeting with SEC.

“I had a meeting with them, and they dealt the blow,” she said.

She was told no lights could be placed on any concrete posts as it was not possible to safety check them, meaning that the only post-mounted motifs will be on the aluminium posts, outside the shops in Sea Road. “They said that as we haven’t budgeted for the tests on those four, we didn’t have to do it until next year,” added Tracy.

“If we had known earlier we would have had time to come up with an alternative. It was a bit of a shock, and very disappointing.”

She added that the Christmas “lights on” event was still planned for December 2, and promised, “extra twinkles” on the village green tree to make up for it.

Arundel, Angmering and Littlehampton are unaffected, as lights are hung from trees and building rather than lampposts.

A spokeswoman for SEC said the checks would test the posts were both electrically and structurally sound.

“It is part of the County Surveyors Code of Practice, which has been around for years. This is nothing to do with the PFI.”

West Sussex County Council declined to comment.