No Festive Lights for 'Forgotten ' Part of High Road

Traders angry as they find out lamp columns are unsuitable

The saga over Christmas lights for part of Chiswick High Road continues, with traders now demanding that they pay reduced rates for a month to compensate for the problems.

When the lights were finally installed last week- several days later than the rest of the High Road- it was discovered that the old style blue lamp columns were not suitable for the lights -unlike the new black lamp columns further up the High Road.

No festive lights for this part of the High Road

An angry Tannaz Mohammadzadeh of Pampering Palace said the shops and businesses in the area were the "forgotten end of Chiswick High Road", despite the fact that Hounslow Council said it wanted to support local businesses.

"This was agreed by the Council last November so why did somebody not do the research and find out if there was a problem in advance ? We are asking Mary Macleod to get in touch with the Council and we want a month's rebate on our rates. It's not good enough, there are around thirty businesses involved and we are not treated in the same way as the rest of Chiswick - we don't even have the thirty-minutes free parking, which also affects our business."

Christmas lights cannot be fixed onto these lamp columns

She said the Christmas lights were working in a small area close to the Chiswick Lane end where the new-style lamp columns had been installed but there was nothing on display for shops close to the Goldhawk Road end.

LBH had agreed last year to extend the provision of Christmas lights to Devonshire Road and the part of CHR from Chiswick Lane to the junction with Goldhawk Road. The agreement in November followed a petition by businesses who wanted their area to look more festive to attract shoppers.

However when the annual Chiswick 'switch on' took place recently, the lights for the extended areas had not yet been installed. The manager for Chiswick and Brentford, Rachel Victor Sampson said that the Council had ordered the extra lights directly from the suppliers and that delivery had been delayed.

The lights were finally delivered last week but Hounslow Highways had then advised that the lamp columns in part of the area were unsuitable for the Christmas lights.The Town manager said that the old-style lamp columns were due be replaced with the newer black lamp columns which are in place further along the High Road but it was not known when this would happen.

December 10, 2014