A YEAR-LONG battle to fix broken lights in a Stratton car park has finally come to an end.

Residents at Carver Close were left literally and figuratively in the dark for months after all but one of the lights near their homes went out and they struggled to contact their housing developer to replace them.

At one point in December, the final bulb blew and the car park at the rear of the close was shrouded in darkness by through long winter nights.

Light has now been restored but the residents are baffled that it has taken so long to resolve such a minor issue.

Stephen Bayliss first brought the problem to the Advertiser’s attention. He said: “I was surprised when I saw the light up again, I thought ‘thank God for that'. I hope this doesn’t happen again, these lights are much-needed for safety reasons.

“It’s a ridiculous situation to be in, it’s so difficult to get a response from Bellway’s customer service team. The houses are brilliant but this upset people.

“If you email you get no reply, and if you call you get an answering machine, it’s disgraceful. We got so fed up with it we went to the paper as a last resort.

Confusion over who was responsible for maintaining the car park’s lights led to the delay in replacing them.

A neighbour, who wished to remain unnamed, said: “It’s great that they have fixed it but they only did it after the Advertiser got involved.

“It seems like a complete oversight that Bellway could set up a new development like this without checking whether or not they or the council, or us homeowners have to look after the lights.

“The council told us it’s not their responsibility, there’s nothing in our contracts saying we have to do it and Bellway weren’t sure, so the lights were in a no man’s land for months.

“They never updated us, we kept having to contact them to find out what was going on, which was frustrating.”

A spokesman for Bellway said: “Bellway has replaced the bulbs in the lights at Carver Close. Our contractor also identified a fault with the electricity supply to a street light and this will be investigated.

“We are currently working to establish the most efficient way for the lights to be maintained for the benefit of the residents going forward. Once this has been confirmed, residents will be notified.”