Winter Blunderland
Christmas lights that adorned Swanscombe High Street
have been removed because of health and safety fears.
The lights were only put up last
week but a survey by Kent County Council has revealed that the
lampposts the lights were hanging from are not safe.
A spokesman from Swanscombe and
Greenhithe Town Council said: "Every year the town council is
required to apply for, and be granted, permission from Kent Highway
Services to install the Christmas lights on the columns in the High
Street; this was carried out in the normal manner and the lights
were put up.
"Unfortunately KCC are in the
process of carrying out a structural survey on all the lamp columns
within Kent and as part of this structural survey we were
subsequently notified that the columns we had Christmas lights on
were ‘code red’ and that we were required to remove the Christmas
lights as a matter of urgency."
KCC informed the council that
code red means that the street light column has a defect which
cannot be repaired and therefore cannot have any additional loading
or weight added to the column.
The spokesman added: "As
frustrating as it is, I trust you will understand that this has
taken the matter out of the control of the town
council."
30/11/12
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