Having read your story Upper Norwood residents in Victorian lamp post row in the current issue of the Croydon Guardian, I felt the need to write in to voice my displeasure also at the council’s policy in this matter.

As articulated in your story by the residents of Upper Norwood, the Victorian lamp posts currently in place have an alluring quality to them that adds greatly to the charm and character of the local area. I live on Churchill Road in South Croydon, and the ornamental Victorian lights add a value to the street that goes well beyond their function, and this is a value that is completely lacking in the drab and entirely utilitarian modern replacements being installed wholesale across the borough by Croydon Council.

The council claims it is doing this work in the name of providing a greener and more sustainable street lighting service. No one can argue with this sentiment, but I passionately disagree that ripping the aesthetic out of our streets is the way to achieve it. These lights have stood and functioned for over 100 years, and yet we are told that they are all suddenly no longer fit for purpose and must come down. The posts are structurally solid, and are sound for many years’ service yet, so let the council upgrade the existing infrastructure to comply with its green ambitions, rather than tear it all down.

Croydon Council’s removal of the Victorian street lighting, and its fobbing off of protests with vague and undefined platitudes about “varying the column designs in conservation areas where this is appropriate" is indicative of an overbearing official mindset that thinks it knows best. This is the same mindset that replaced the charismatic red telephone boxes that had been in place for decades with the anonymously bland steel and plastic kiosks that lasted a fraction of the time; and that tears the heart out of local Victorian-era railway stations and turns them into something resembling a prison or an army outpost from the Troubles in Northern Ireland – all uniform grey, caged windows,  steel benches, and shelters of reinforced glass.

This seemingly inexorable slide towards pure function at the expense of any form whatsoever continues in the street lighting policy of Croydon Council, which is carrying through its plan in the name of ‘improvement’. This is no improvement.

I have emailed the council on two occasions now to raise my concerns with them, but to date have received no response nor even an acknowledgment that my correspondence have been received. My hope is that by taking the issue up in the Croydon Guardian I might be able to elicit at least some response from them, and to prompt others with similar concerns to action.

Gareth Jennings
Churchill Road, Upper Norwood