Holes

All the streetlights in Delhi Street and the surrounding area have been changed. This is a Good Thing, as the retiring ones were yellow sodium lights on concrete posts and these are white lights on, I think, aluminium posts and are designed to reduce light pollution. The process has been entertaining to watch, though. In the old days, council workers would have come along and done the job, maybe over a couple of days. Now, however, services are put out to tender and a whole raft of different agencies do bits of the work. It would also once have been overseen by the County Borough of Barrow. Now it's run from Carlisle - way across the mountains - by Cumbria County Council

First, the lights went out, around the end of September. A couple of weeks after that, workers came along, dug holes, and planted the new lamp posts. Two days later, another gang comes along and uproots the old lamp posts. After that, nothing for a month. Then on Monday of this week, yet a third gang comes along, digs holes at intervals along the far side of the street, and hey, that night the new lights are on across the street. On Tuesday they came back and did the same on this side.

Unfortunately, this gang don't seem able to fill in the holes they dug. This, after all, is a town with a long history of sensitivity over demarcation! So, we still await the filling-in of the holes. And meanwhile a walk down Delhi Street, while well and pleasantly lit, is a obstacle course!