Concerns have been raised about driving conditions in Mandurah following a reported surge in broken streetlights. The issue was discussed at the City of Mandurah's May council meeting, where Councillor Dave Schumacher noted that over recent months, he and many others had observed more streetlights out and taking extended periods to repair.
“I know McLarty Road for one, through my section where I travel down, was out for quite a few weeks,” he said.
Matthew Hall, City Director of Built and Natural Environment, explained that most street lighting in the city is owned and maintained by Western Power. The city itself owns and maintains about 2,000 streetlights, while Western Power manages significantly more.
Repair times vary, Hall said. “If it’s a simple globe replacement, then generally that can be undertaken fairly quickly. If it’s an electrical fault, that can take significantly longer. If it requires parts and equipment, then effectively that can be a delay of up to three to four months to source those particular parts, and particularly where that infrastructure is ageing.”
Councillor Jenny Green highlighted that the lack of lights is making some roads dangerous, particularly roundabouts. “Most roundabouts in the past have been in intersections where there’s been street lights, but lately those street lights have been out. Coming home sometimes when it’s quite dark, you’re not upon that roundabout until it’s just a little bit too late.” She asked whether a review or assessment would be conducted to ensure roundabouts have reflective coating.
Hall responded that reflective material is generally present in give way lines and lane markings. “If there is lighting not working, then we’d be relying on cars’ headlights and the reflective pavement marking to delineate those, as well as signage on the approach to the roundabout as well.” He added that if city officers are notified of specific problematic locations, they will be investigated as a priority.
A Western Power spokesperson reported that the company operates about 11,600 streetlights in the City of Mandurah. In May, they received 166 fault reports for streetlights in the area, representing about 1.4 percent of the total. Of these, 73 lights were attended and repaired, 53 were found to be working upon inspection, and 32 required traffic management before repairs could be completed.
“While we often experience an increase in fault reports in winter, average repair time for streetlights in the City of Mandurah during May was 6.7 business days,” the spokesperson said. “Most of the faults reported to us involve basic lightbulb or LED head replacement. Western Power will respond to maintenance issues such as dim, flickering, or non-functional streetlights and those that stay on all day.”
The spokesperson noted that Western Power uses a combination of community and local government reporting, along with maintenance-initiated auditing, to manage streetlights. All maintenance issues can be reported via the online streetlight reporting tool or by calling 13 13 51.
