Calls for a Cramlington-wide safety check on concrete lamp posts have been made following the collapse of a column in Cramlington earlier this month. 

Cramlington is one of the unique places in Northumberland where there are still lighting columns made of concrete.  Many of these were installed by developers in the late 70's and early 80's as a low maintenance cheap option to steel units.

Estates in Cramlington, particularly around the Eastfied area are peppered with concrete columns and now local resident Christine Dunbar who runs a community facebook page is calling for a safety audit.

"I am very concerned that these columns which are almost all on housing estates may be unsafe. The column which toppled into a front garden was hit by a slow moving, reversing van. A steel column would have bent or buckled, these concrete ones have no flexibility and simple collapse. This could have been catastrophic for any passers by.

I believe these units are fundamentally unsafe and I am now calling on Northumberland County Council to carry out a full audit in Cramlington and anywhere else which has these concrete units. 

I don't want a death to be the catalyst for sorting out this problem"

The Unit which was hit in Cramlington in April was outside number 47 of Kingswood Road 

Home owner Alison Mullen, where the column landed said

"I was horrified. These must weigh a ton and to have this slam into the front garden was a shocker. I thank god that I wasn't in the garden or worse still that it had hit a child or passer by"

Christine Dunbar, a former Police Officer, has written to the Council asking for an urgent safety audit to be carried out.