Gisborne District Council says local streetlight failures may not be rectified until after winter.
Council has blamed the failure of 80 local streetlights on a defective batch of lights purchased back in 2017 and 2018.
“An LED Luminaire light has a ‘driver’ inside it which is basically the brains of the unit. It is the driver in some of these units which has failed,” said Journeys Infrastructure manager, Dave Hadfield.
He said streetlight supplier, Advanced Lighting Technologies, had honoured its 10 year warranty and started delivering replacement parts to Gisborne, but has experienced delays.
“Unfortunately, the process has become quite drawn out due to both the drivers faulting over a long period of time and the extended time it’s taking to get parts to make new drivers and have them shipped to New Zealand,” said Mr Hadfield.
So far around 25% of the drivers or 162 lights have been affected and these were replaced when parts arrived in June, he said.
“To the public who have notified us of faults, we thank you – we have crews undertaking audits at night to record lights that have stopped working however your eyes in the community are also very much appreciated.”
“When we have a date for when the next shipment of parts will arrive we will inform everyone but due to global supply issues, we don’t know when this will be.”
He said Council maintains 3,900 streetlights, with all other LED replacements currently operating well.
“Once the new lights arrive our contractor will make this an urgent priority,” said Mr Hadfield.
