The York Council’s £1million street lighting replacement project has plunged parts of the City into darkness.

In some streets the numbers of lampposts have been reduced, in others street lights have been abandoned while in some streets – although the lights have been replaced – large unilluminated areas have been created.

There have been complaints about Lendal Bridge, Burgess Walk, Gale Lane and – particularly – Front Street.

In the latter (see movie at http://tinyurl.com/Front-Street-gloom) sections of the footpath are no longer lit raising fears about road safety and crime.

The specifications for the new lights were never discussed in public raising concerns that the programme is in effect a cost cutting exercise.

When the project was launched by a Labour Councillor he claimed that it was the biggest street lighting project since “Victorian times”.

Some may feel that a return to gas lights might produce better illumination in some streets.