Village concern over lack of lamps (From The Northern Echo)

Village concern over lack of lamps

6:17pm Wednesday 22nd February 2012 in Darlington

STREET lamps should be bought to illuminate the path to a village estate, a parish council has said.

Middleton St George Parish Council has said it is looking into different ways to get funding for lamps to the Virginia Estate, to the east of the village.

At the council's latestmeeting, its chairwoman, Doris Jones, said that people were put off walking along the path to the Virginia Estate when it was dark because of the lack of lighting.

However, some residents had no option but to use the path because buses did not stop at the Virginia Estate.

Councillor Jones said she had raised the issue with Darlington Borough Council's LocalMotion team because the installation of street lamps could encourage increased use of public transport.

She said: "There's £4m to spend. We need to get the council to put us four or five lamps which would connect the two pieces of the village together.

"There's one narrow pavement there and more often than not it's overgrown."

A street review organised by the pedestrian charity Living Streets in conjunction with LocalMotion is taking place in Middleton St George on Saturday, March 10, at 10.30am, in St George's School.

Local residents and businesses are invited to take part in the walkabout and give their say about how they would like to improve the streets of the village.

For more information about the street review, contact Richard Smith at Living Streets on 0191-245-7329 or email richard. smith@living streets. org. uk