Issue - meetings

The Committee Manager read out a question from Sarah Davies, Helensburgh Resident and Helensburgh Community Councillor, regarding Lighting in Colquhoun Square. 

“Can it please be explained why it has taken six months from the first report of problems, an upheld official complaint and numerous phone calls to get the lights repaired in Colquhoun Square  (All those who answered my numerous calls were, efficient, polite and helpful I thank them for that) Are the lights now fully operational?

Why at no time were the reported faults logged on the website as reported, as other lighting faults are?

Can we please be assured that this problem will not occur again. Functional Street Lighting is a matter of Health and Safety particularly for women, girls, the elderly and the vulnerable.”

Mark Calder, Project Manager responded by advising that the lighting was not currently operational.  This was as a result of the columns being non-standard construction, requiring specialist parts.  He advised that the ordering had been impacted by a review of suppliers to ensure continued best value.  The parts have been ordered but due to the specialist nature there was no timescale for their delivery.

With regard to the upheld complaint, Mark explained that the complaint was in regard to the flow of information rather than the fault.  This had been due to the operational and customer facing case management systems being misaligned due to a glitch.  Regarding the website, he advised that the complaint had been logged, was in the system, and was being actioned.

In terms of assurances that there would be no further issues, Mark commented that it was not possible to assure that there would never be another fault but that changes in the management and reporting system should reassure that service requests are robustly and appropriately managed.  Mark advised that he was in correspondence with the author of the question and that he would update the person directly when more was known about the delivery timescales.

Councillor MacQuire commented that to his knowledge 14 of the 22 lights had now been fixed.