The Shires Langdon Hills residents to hold candlelit protest

Families living on The Shires, Langdon Hills, first reported the failure of street lights on October 24 last year, and have been left waiting ever since.

The issue has affected 80 homes in the area and residents have attempted to get the lighting reinstated with Redrow and site’s managing agents, HML.

The residents will now hold the Shires Shine a Light event, where they will encourage Redrow or HML to restore the lights on October 24.Fed up - Mark said he and residents have called on Redrow and HML to fix the issue (Image: Mark Wray)

A Redrow spokesperson has confirmed they are aware of the issue and working with their service provider to resolve it.

Mark Wray, the first to report the faulty lights, said: “We’ve tried repeatedly throughout the 12 months to get the lights fixed and have been told by Redrow and HML that one of them is on the case. But they’re still not working and we have no prospect of when they might be lit again.

“They’re installed on a part of the development adjoining open space and at night it’s very dark. Walking along the road there can be a scary prospect for some people, especially women and children.”

Lights out - The issue has affected 80 homes according to Mark (Image: Mark Wray)

Mr Wray and his wife Karen have taken a video clip of the area at night and submitted it as an entry, tongue-in-cheek, to Redrow’s Halloween themed “scariest street” competition.

“As well as shining a light on the failure to sort a relatively simple problem we want to draw attention to what we see as numerous other failures by the developers to safeguard the interests of residents here,” he added. 

“Their customer service has been poor to non-existent.

“With the recent merger of Redrow and Barratt Homes and talk of millions of pounds worth of cuts we’re concerned customer service will get even worse, if that’s possible.”

A spokesperson said: “We are aware of issues with some of the lighting bollards on parts of this development.

“We are working with our service provider to get this resolved as soon as possible and will be writing to affected residents to share an update on the repair work.”