‘Unmitigated gall’ or mission accomplished: Wellington lamp saga rolls on

Tuesday, 13 February 2024

News that the Wellington City Council had fixed its drop-prone lamps came as quite a surprise to the man who highlighted the issue and counted nine unfixed in just a short walk.

“A programme started last year to fix faulty street lights in Wellington has now been completed,” the council trumpeted on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday.

“The failing knuckle adaptors which resulted in some streetlights drooping have all been removed. The project was completed 10 months ahead of schedule and $800,000 under budget.”

Former city councillor Chris Calvi-Freeman first raised the alarm with The Post in 2023 about the heads of street lamps crashing to the ground, leading to the council admitting it had stuffed up with knuckle adaptors on the lamps around town and that 17,000 needed to be replaced.

Calvi-Freeman on Monday took a walk from Kio Bay to Point Jerningham beside Wellington Harbour and counted nine missing lamps out of about 45 to 50.

“And you have the unmitigated gall to claim the job has been completed,” he told the council via X.

Motukairangi/Eastern Ward councillor Sarah Free checked in with council staff. It was true that all the faulty knuckle adaptors had been fixed but the council was still to finish replacing all the missing lamps, she said.

The council in 2023 claimed just a handful of the lamps had an issue, before an eventual mea culpa that every one of the city’s 17,000 lamps needed replacing and parts of the council knew of the issue in 2018 but it was never raised with top brass.

By 2023, 17 had crashed to the ground, one near a Wellington primary school.

The root of the problem was a connecting part in some of the city’s 17,000 LED street lamps, which were installed in 2017. It causes the lamps to sag and drop. The knuckle adaptor was included at the council’s insistence.

Their weight was confirmed at up to 11.2kg and the council has confirmed they could kill or maim.