Streetlights

The Parish Council is responsible for the majority of streetlights within the parish but there are some lights which are still Bucks Council’s responsibility, these include lights in the following locations:

• The A418 roundabout junction with Pegasus Way.
• Along Thame Road from the Haddenham and Thame Parkway Train Station to the entrance of Wykeham Way.
• The traffic calming features along Thame Road.
• Millway Furlong, part of Pegasus Way and Pilots Lane.
• At the Banks Road and Church Way crossing - by the two roundabouts.

This leaves over 270 streetlights in Haddenham which the Parish Council own and maintain. This figure is growing as the Parish Council has resolved to adopt the majority of the streetlights from the new housing developments once they are completed.

Our streetlights come in all shapes and sizes! We have some which are mounted onto telegraph poles and others are on concrete columns. The shear diversity reflects the stages of growth of Haddenham but can make the administration and maintenance quite challenging. The Parish has many streetlights which have been in place since the early 1970’s. The Parish Council is undertaking an improvement scheme and will replace older lanterns and columns when they become uneconomical to repair. The new modern LED lights and aluminium columns are more energy efficient and more cost effective to run.

1

The general maintenance of our lights is undertaken by our appointed Streetlight Contractor. They visit out parish on a 10 (working) day schedule. This may mean that if you reported a light just after they have been onsite, then there will be a wait until the next scheduled date. Whilst the majority of the repairs are completed straightaway, further delay can be caused if the defective light needs a new part which may need to be ordered.

2

In some instances, it may be decided that a whole new streetlight is needed. Ordering and installing a new column is relatively straightforward and can be completed within a couple of weeks. However, for the new column to work we need to transfer the power from the old column to the new. This requires a specialist company who have a licence to operate on the National Grid. The Parish Council has to apply to this company to undertake the ‘jointing’ of electricity and this process takes 8 weeks. Once the jointing has been completed the Council can then remove the old column.