One of Brighton’s cast iron Victorian lamp posts collapsed onto the pavement on Marine Parade overnight.
It’s not yet clear what caused the post to fall, but Brighton and Hove City Council believes it was hit by a car. Sussex Police have no record of a crash in that location.
The council’s street lighting team cleared away the column this morning, and UK Power Networks made the wiring safe.
Another modern lamp post by Pavilion Gardens in Marlborough Place was also knocked over this morning. There was no police record of a crash at that location either.
A council spokesman said: “Two lamp-posts in the city have been seriously damaged in the last 24 hours.
“Both have been made safe by our street lighting team.
“We are investigating both incidents. At this stage we believe both may been struck by vehicles.”
A UK Power Networks spokesman said: “UK Power Networks engineers have today completed work to make exposed electrical equipment safe after responding to reports of damage to a third party’s ornamental lamp post at Marine Parade in Brighton.”
In 2020, scores of the heritage lanterns were taken down after a survey found that one in four posed a risk because they were so corroded.
The survey was carried out after one of the lanterns fell onto Marine Parade in 2016.
After one of the lanterns was listed for sale on eBay, councillors agreed to draw up a list of the city’s heritage assets.
I saw this lamppost collapse at 7.50 am.. there was no car crashing into it. If someone had been walking underneath they would have been killed!
Hi, I was 2 vehicles behind a bakery lorry that clipped the lamp post with the top left back of truck where the road is so rough it made the truck flick it which caused it to knock down and break into pieces
Any chance that this is due to the continued lack of maintenance by the city council, and not necessarily the fault of their favourite scapegoat – motorists?
The cynic vies is that the council allows the infrastructure to run down and then gives someone a fat contract to replace with dull boring alternatives or if it is land, just sells it for peanuts.
yes typical councils all over the UK not keeping up on maintenance then things get dangerous.