Fife's faulty street lights: some have been waiting almost a year to be fixed

Following several complaints from residents, the East Neuk councillor contacted council officers to request an up-to-date record of outstanding repairs across the local authority.

The figures provided by Fife Council, show the longest outstanding repairs were on Waggon Road, Leven and on Kirk Wynd and Manse Road, Markinch. These were first reported to Scottish Power on March 31, 2023.

These figures come as council officers and Scottish Power met to discuss the ongoing problems. Following this meeting, it was announced that Scottish Power had replaced their subcontractor following staffing issues and that they would be carrying out a review of all outstanding repairs. It is hoped that this will result in a significant improvement to current service levels.

Councillor Dillon said: “These are damning figures that highlight the failure of Scottish Power to provide an adequate service right across Fife. In my own ward, we have seen 10 streets left with faulty lights, the first being reported back in September. This is completely unacceptable, especially at this time of year when the nights are long and it is fundamentally an issue of public safety. Residents deserve to able to go out into well lit streets.

“I urge council officers and Scottish Power to work collaboratively to ensure that these outstanding repairs are dealt with as soon as possible. While the appointment of a new subcontractor is a positive step, I imagine it will be some time before the residents of Fife see any real improvements.

Fife Council's roads maintenance manager Bill Liddle confirmed: “At the moment we have around 60 outstanding ScottishPower faults across Fife.

“The majority of these are single street lights. Underground cable faults can take more time to fix and we are in discussion with ScottishPower on the time it is taking to repair these faults on the street lighting network.

“Fines are payable to the council if target dates are not met.