Dim council chiefs have come under fire for spending £2,000 of taxpayers’ cash on this new lamppost which gives out no light – after it was erected behind a conifer TREE.
Not one beam of light can escape from the 20ft-high lamppost which has left baffled pedestrians completely in the dark.
It was installed by Birmingham City Council highways contractor Amey as part of its upgrade of the city’s 95,000 street lamps.
The council, the largest local authority in Europe, paid Amey around £2,000 to install the new lamppost which is part of a major upgrade project.
Old fashioned and costly fluorescent lights are being replaced with energy-efficient LED models.
Birmingham City Councillor Rob Pocock, who represents the Sutton Vesey ward, expressed his anger at the barmy lamppost which was erected on Eastern Road in Boldmere, last week.
He fumed: “It’s a real shame, as most of the street lights have made a big improvement to the area.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw what the contractors had done. It must have taken a super-human effort to get it so well hidden inside those trees.
“Not one luminous ray can escape to light up the highway, it’s so perfectly concealed.
“The contractor should have ensured the foliage was removed first.
“This sort of thing gets the contractors and the council a bad name.
“People have good reason to question the plain common sense of a public service that can do things like this without a word of explanation to the residents, who are the ones being left in the dark.”
Resident Joan Callum, 54, who lives on the road, said: “It beggars belief that the contractors didn’t use even a tiny piece of common sense when they put up the lamppost.
“It’s an obvious thing to say but whoever thought it was a good idea to put a lamppost behind a tree clearly isn’t very bright themselves.
“The old lamppost protruded out from the trees so despite the conifers being quite thick the light still reached the pavement.
“This new lamppost is utterly pointless.”
Amey are now contacting the homeowner who owns the trees to discuss trimming the foliage back.
Amey’s highways network manager Eddie Fellows said: “The position of the new LED lighting column is determined by national standards which we have to design our schemes to.
“We are working with the property owner to ensure that the obstruction caused by the overgrown trees is removed.”
This is not the first time Amey has encountered protests while installing lampposts.
In 2012, residents in Selly Park Avenue Conservation Area successfully got lamps upgraded to heritage-style design and relocated at alleway entrances to maximise security.
