Tories leave Raymead residents in the dark

Raymead Avenue residents were left in the dark for two weeks as Croydon’s bungling Tory council left the street lights out.  Residents of the Thornton Heath street made repeated calls to the Council’s call centre only to be put through to a voicemail box.  No one returned their call and no action was taken to fix the lights.  Older and disabled residents were left to stumble in the dark across uneven pavements and streets that are often strewn with litter and dumped rubbish thanks to the council’s failing street-cleaning services.

Despairing residents came to see Labour MP Steve Reed after the council’s repeated failure to act.  Steve immediately contacted senior managers to demand they sort the problem out.  Within hours the lights were back on.

Steve later went to visit residents in Raymead Avenue to check they were satisfied.  Speaking after meeting residents he said: “It is deeply irresponsible of our council to leave street lights off for as long as two weeks.  Their helpline clearly doesn’t work, no one cared enough to even return residents’ calls let alone put the lights back on.  It shouldn’t take an MP’s intervention to fix problems like this, a decent council should respond to its own residents as soon as the problem is reported.  Yet again Croydon’s Tories have shown they aren’t fit to run our council.”

If you have comments or views on Croydon Council’s street services including cleaning and lighting you can share them with the Croydon North Streets Commission by clicking here.