Sign In / Register
Wellsford residents want to know why a long stretch of State Highway 1 was left in darkness for four months when faulty streetlights were left unfixed.
The lamps went out from Centennial Park Road up to Wellsford Police Station last October and despite a deluge of complaints to several different agencies, were only re-illuminated last month.
Clever Endeavours business owner Tricia Cox says she contacted Auckland Council, Auckland Transport (AT), Waka Kotahi NZTA, Vector and Electrix, and each time was told it was a different agency’s responsibility and to contact someone else.
“They were all just passing the buck, it was beyond a joke. I made so many phone calls and said you guys are just duck-shoving. We’re the back-end of Auckland here – we just don’t get help,” she said.
“It was a big health and safety issue – our police, fire and ambulance stations were in the dark, the skate park was in the dark, stuff was getting taken. It was pitch black for four months.”
The lights were eventually fixed by Vector, but Cox remains frustrated that it took so long for a significant blackout on the country’s main highway to be resolved.
A Vector spokesperson said it was made aware of the fault towards the end of January and sent a crew to investigate.
“The problem was not a simple fix and took some time to identify, repair and test before power was restored on February 2,” she said. “Two weeks later, a new fault in a different section occurred that, again, was not a simple fix.
The crew investigated, repaired, reconnected and retested the cable and was able to restore power a few days later.”
She added that while Vector looked after the cables, the lamp posts themselves were the responsibility of Auckland Transport or Waka Kotahi NZTA, depending on the type of road.
“In this case, we believe the street lights belong to Waka Kotahi. Whenever either agency has a problem with their power, they need to let us know so we can get our crews out to fix it,” she said.
A Waka Kotahi spokesperson said the organisation had “promptly” sent a contractor to carry out a full sytem check of the Wellsford lights after receiving a request for maintenance in December.
“Our contractor found the only problem to be power supply to the streetlights that were otherwise in perfect working order,” she said. “Waka Kotahi informed Vector of the power supply issue, when logging the request for service on 2 December 2021.
“Follow up requests were made before Vector attended the job and repaired the damaged cable earlier this month.”
Waka Kotahi added that it was working with Vector to make sure its website directed customers to Waka Kotahi for requests related to state highways in future.
“All streetlights located on state highways are owned and maintained by Waka Kotahi, while all others are owned and maintained by councils and property owners,” the spokesperson added.
“The cables and lines feeding power supply to streetlights are the responsibility of the electricity provider for that area, which in the case of Wellsford, and Auckland, is Vector.
“For lights on state highways, we advise contacting Waka Kotahi in the first instance, so a qualified contractor can make repairs”
