I, LIKE many other residents on the Aspin estate, received a letter from North Yorkshire County Council notifying us of the replacement of lamp posts.

I thought the changes would benefit the estate; little did I know this was not to be the case for our road and particularly our household.

For the last 15 years, I have enjoyed living on a small road comprising four houses.

Our road had been lit by one lamp post which was situated half way down the road. Last Wednesday evening, I came home from work to find workmen digging a hole in the pavement outside my bay window, where the new lamp post was to be re-sited.

I was shocked as I naively thought that residents would be consulted as to where new lamp posts would be positioned, but apparently no consultation is necessary.

The following morning, my husband and I contacted the county council and asked them to come out and discuss an alternative site for the lamp post. The only option they gave us was to position it at the foot of our drive, so as to ensure there would be sufficient light to illuminate the top half of the road. An additional lamp post was sited further down the road.

I don’t normally object to change, but I feel somewhat aggrieved that the once pleasant view I had from my window has now been spoilt by a hideously tall and unsightly lamp post.

I have since discovered that on the first phase of the replacement scheme, part of the estate has had five-metre lamp posts erected which are more asthetically pleasing to the eye, whilst our road and many other roads have had six- metre lamp posts installed, which are more suited to major trunk roads or roundabouts.

We have notified the county council of the disparity and we were informed that if this was the case the five-metre lamp posts would have the heads cut off and an extra metre of pole welded on so they would all be the same! If you believe that you will believe anything. What a mess!

What has annoyed me most about the implementation of this scheme has been the attitude of the county council.

It has prompted me to make an appeal to the county council and I will be writing to my local councillors to express my concerns.

I would hope that other residents who may have similar opinions about the scheme would do likewise.