Anger at plans to remove historic Padiham lamppost (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Anger at plans to remove historic Padiham lamppost

9:30am Thursday 10th November 2011 in Padiham By Tyrone Marshall, Reporter

LEAVE A LIGHT The West Street lamppost

THE mayor of Padiham has slammed plans to remove a Victorian lamppost in a conservation area and replace it with a modern street light.

Lancashire County Council has announced proposals to replace the 100-year-old former gas lamp in West Street after it started to lean slightly and became damaged.

But bosses at county hall have told Padiham Town Council that they will only replace it with a standard modern light.

Town councillors said that the county council had told them they needed an extra £800 to get a ‘heritage lamp’ in the area.

Coun Bob Clark, the town's mayor, has hit out at the plans.

He said: “They should replace it with the correct lantern for that area.

“I know money is in short supply but it won’t look right if a light is put up that is not in keeping with the traditional lanterns on the street.

“It is a conservation area for the town but that is slowly being eroded. A lot of the pavements have seen traditional flags replaced with tarmac, which is not in keeping with the conservation area.”

A number of Victorian street lamps are still in place in Padiham, which date back to a number of foundries in the area.

Coun John Harbour said: “I find it strange that the county council can come along and say we will replace the light but we will not replace it like for like even though it is in a conservation area.

“What is the point of having a conservation area if the authority are not going to work to that.”

Jacqueline Walsh, principal engineer at Lancashire County Council, said: “We have met with parish and town councillors to explain that, while we do not use cast iron for lamp-posts because it is not a safe material, we can provide a kit which will make a standard lamp-post look like the traditional cast iron model.

“This depends on the difference in cost between a 'standard' and an embellished lamp-post - around £800 each including painting it a suitable colour - being made up by a third party.

“Our main priority is to ensure that the area is safe and well-lit, so in this case we agreed that we would install a standard lamp-post now, to which we could add the embellishment kit at a later date, if the money for this became available.”