ATTEMPTS to bring all-night lighting back to Basildon have been delayed.

Basildon Council approved plans to keep streetlights on between 1am and 5am from October 31.

But the lights went out again on November 1.

Halstead Gazette:

Explanation - Gavin Callaghan 

Jerry Turner, 67, said: “I thought I would get up in the morning and go to work and I would be able to see where I was going for once. But no, I was out driving and it is still the same pitch black streets.

“I am a delivery driver, I start about 4am every day, and you go down a lot of these roads and you cannot see a thing. Let alone if you have to reverse around a bend.

“As everyone has said all along, it is just not safe in the pitch black darkness. Not for people like me, not for people going to work early, or people coming home from a night out.”

In 2014 the lights were turned off between midnight and 5am, which was later altered to being turned off from 1am.

Basildon Council decided to pay Essex County Council £146,000 to keep them on and claimed this would begin on October 31 and run until March.

Essex County Council, the authority in control of the lights, claims contracts were not due to be signed until November 8 and even then it will take some time to make the changes.

Leader of Basildon Council Labour’s Gavin Callaghan said: “Both Basildon Council and Essex County Council have been working together to make sure lights are switched on as soon as possible.

“We have signed our end of the contract and Essex have indicated they will be signing theirs on Friday.

“We had expected the process to be quicker but we are assured that the lights will be going on from next week.

“I want to reassure residents and businesses this will happen and I have written assurances.”

The full-year cost for the borough is currently £275,000 a year.

However, this should come down when the borough’s lights are upgraded to more cost effective and efficient LED lights - due to be done by Essex County Council in 2020/21.

David Finch, leader of Essex County Council, said: “There is a clear understanding the agreement would be jointly signed on Friday, November 8.

“This date was fully agreed with Basildon Council. Once the agreement is signed, street lighting engineers will start switching control systems on all the street lights in the district back to all-night, a process which may take a few days.”