Conservative East Belfast candidate Neil Wilson has questioned the effectiveness of the DRD minister’s pledge to spend £1million fixing streetlights.
Despite Michelle McIlveen’s pledge in November last year to fix the street lights of Belfast, complaints made to Conservative canvassers suggest that little improvement has been made.
Late last year the Northern Ireland Executive promised to put aside £1million to address the 7,000 reportedly broken street lights across Belfast. However, five months on no real improvement has been made and broken street lights are still causing major concern on the doorsteps.
Neil Wilson from the Conservatives said: “They promised to sort it out but nothing has been done. Many complaints are still coming in including one of a street light on Castlehill Road that is visibly smashed. It’s appalling that through the darkest months of the year so many street lights have still not been fixed. This is clearly dangerous.”
“Dark streets do encourage crime. We are hearing reports of burglaries in areas where these lights have been out.”
Other public road concerns are very apparent, including the amount of pot holes peppered across Belfast, which like street lights, have still not really been addressed. Despite the reporting efforts of the Conservative Constituency service volunteer caseworker team, it looks like Belfast will be kept in the dark for a little longer.