Emergency repairs needed on Peterborough street lights after 70mph storm

A number of lights, including some in Newark Road, were damaged as 70mph winds whistled through the city in the early hours of Thursday morning.

There will be lane closures in place to allow the works to be carried out safely - but Peterborough City Council have not revealed a full list of roads affected, or when the repairs will take place.

The council said there would not be any full road closures taking place.

Andy Tatt, head of Peterborough Highway Services, a partnership between Peterborough City Council and Skanska, said: “Following the exceptionally high winds across the UK yesterday morning (Thursday 18 January) damage to street lamps in Peterborough has been identified.

“Initial investigation has indicated this damage is to the connection between the bracket and the lighting unit currently being installed on highway infrastructure on parkways, roads and footpaths across the city as part of a three-year programme by Peterborough Highway Services.

“The health and safety of those who use our roads is of paramount important to Peterborough Highway Services. Engineers are currently assessing the full situation across the city to make safe those fixtures affected.

“As we need to make sure this is carried out as quickly as possible, emergency lane closures are expected on some roads to allow full checks and repairs to take place and we apologise for any disruption this may cause.”

James Holmes, operations director at Skanska UK said: “We have taken the necessary actions to make safe any damaged street lights and, as a precaution, we are conducting a thorough assessment of the surrounding fixtures.

“We apologise for any disruption caused whilst this takes place.”

The winds caused chaos across Peterborough, with the LAMMA farming machinery show at the East of England Arena being cancelled due to health and safety concerns.

A number of roads were blocked by trees and branches which were blown down, and lorries tipping over.

And a popular pony was killed by a fallen tree.

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Peterborough battered by 70mph winds