To ask the Minister for Infrastructure to outline (i) why her Department is removing street lights from unadopted roads; (ii) whether a public consultation was carried out before this decision was made; (iii) whether notification is given to local residents before street lights are removed; (iv) whether any assessment was carried out on the impact of this decision on elderly, disabled, partially sighted or vulnerable residents.

There are many street lights on privately owned property, which historically have been maintained by my Department. Under this arrangement, normal routine maintenance will continue to be carried out until the street lights reach end of their useful life, for example, if the electricity supply fails or a lighting installation becomes structurally or electrically unsafe.

At that stage, the lights will be removed and not replaced. This is in accordance with the Department’s current policy, which has been in place for many years under previous Ministers and is applied strictly. Finding a satisfactory way forward on this issue is severely constrained by the severe budgetary pressures my Department has been dealing with over recent years and the fact that it involves land my Department is not responsible for.