Letter to the editor: Thanks are due to Mrs Smoker (Pensioner angry at white street lighting, August 27).

Since last September, some residents of Manor Lane Terrace in Lewisham have been grappling with Lewisham Council officers, elected members, our MP and Skanska, the lighting provider. The lighting is undoubtedly very intrusive and disruptive as there are too many new posts, which are too tall and too bright.

Local footballers would have no problem holding a night match in our floodlit terrace.

The British standards do not just cover brightness. They were written after a Royal Commission reported on the subject of street lighting, which was about to be renewed across the country. It covers aspects of overlighting, intrusiveness of lighting and possible damage caused to residents’ lives, wild life, horticulture and the environment in general.

Skanska has slightly diminished one luminaire, almost imperceptibly. The elected mayor was happy to let Skanska reply on his behalf. We have this in writing. This was before he was re-elected. He has been re-elected, but it was hardly a great coup. Yes, he received 50.3 per cent of the vote, but that was from a turnout of less than 40 per cent. Less than 20 per cent of the electorate actually voted for Mayor Bullock.

If you are giving away your publicly-allotted powers, is the turnout any surprise?

Worse, we are all paying for this. Even worse than that, we are paying for the lovely, stylish carriage lamps (shorter, by the way) appearing in some of our more salubrious roads and streets. How does a Labour council get away with such discrimination?

PATRICIA ROBINSON, Lewisham