Broken St Albans car park streetlights a “crime scene waiting to happen”

Broken streetlights which plunge a car park in St Albans into complete darkness every evening have still not been repaired more than a month since the fault first occurred.

The car park is on Cairnes Close, behind Highfield Park, and is for adjacent residents – but only three out of 16 lights have worked since February.

It has been described as a “crime scene waiting to happen” by St Albans district councillor Chris Brazier: “It’s not safe for people to go out and walk in there at night.

“If you are a young child, a young woman, or a man as well in fact, it’s dangerous to go into an area that pitch black.”

He is trying to push for an electrician to fix the problem, but has received no responses to his appeal.

A disabled man, with a breathing condition, who lives in one of the flats, Stuart James, said: “I would use that car park when it’s working fine, but if I were to use that now I would be walking in complete darkness.

“If kids want to go into the car park, it’s an accident waiting to happen.”

He has been told it will be fixed next Wednesday, more than a month after they stopped working.

Another resident, David Corley, says he wakes up every day wondering if his car has been damaged by yobs overnight: “It’s absolutely ridiculous. I come in back home in the evening and it’s in total darkness, but we are all in limbo at the moment.”

A spokesperson for Home Group, who own the houses, said: “We’ve been liaising with residents on this issue and we’ve arranged for a maintenance team to attend next week.”