Councillors and residents in Peasedown St John are celebrating after a campaign to see street-lighting columns replaced in their village has paid off.

For over a year, local councillors, Sarah Bevan and Karen Walker (Independents), lobbied the Highways Department at B&NES Council with concerns about the quality and safety of old streetlight columns. Cllr Sarah Bevan said: “We identified a number of streets in Peasedown St John where the columns needed replacing. Several decades of regular use leads to wear and tear, so it’s been a priority of ours to have them replaced.

“Making repairs to street lighting isn’t a straight forward issue to address. Some streetlights are owned by B&NES, some by the Parish Council, and some by Curo.”

The forty-three columns replaced by B&NES were in Orchard Way, Adams Close and Pippin Close. The £41,000 was allocated in the 2019/20 council budget, following requests made by the Independent councillors. Cllr Karen Walker added: “Each year, Cllr Bevan and I make a series of requests to the council’s leadership on behalf our residents for funding allocations for Peasedown. We’ll be making a new series of requests at February’s budget meeting.”