PENSIONERS are fed-up with faulty street lights which they say encourage youths to target their homes in Park South.

People living in sheltered accommodation say lights which illuminate the back of their bungalows, in Studland Close, plus some flats in Kemmerton Close, have been off nearly all the time since December.

They say the three lights, in Denholme Road, come on for a short period after workmen visit but they then go off again within a few hours.

It has led to a number of youths using the cover of darkness to throw apples and stones at the windows, knock on doors and windows and walk on the roofs, leaving the pensioners terrified.

Once the lights came on during the day and then turned off at night and stayed off.

They went back on yesterday morning after some workmen came out, but it is unclear whether the problem in now fixed permanently.

Residents say they have complained repeatedly to Swindon Council, which said there was a supply problem and the lights would be fixed by March 8, but nothing happened until yesterday.

Bernice Halliwell, 68, and her husband Bill, 53, who have lived there for four years, said they were being plagued by children throwing stones and crab apples at the windows and ringing the doorbell.

“I’m fed up with it. It’s a security thing and I live in fear of somebody getting into my garden and me not being able to see them. There’s always that fear,” she said.

“I get kids ringing my bell and running away and I can’t see them because it’s so dark out there.

“It’s more of a security thing than me going out and wanting the lights on because I’m trying to walk down the road.”

Widower Ronald Carter, 80, who has lived there for seven years, said he was being targeted by people throwing stones and apples at his house, knocking on windows and throwing beer cans in his pond.

The great-grandfather, who has a heart condition, has now installed his own security light to illuminate his garden but wants the street lights to be fixed.

“It encourages them because where the lights are off, it’s dark, they can do something and just hide out of the way,” he said.

“When those lights are off, we seem to get more trouble.”

Bob Leighfield and his wife Kim live opposite the lights in Denholme Road.

Bob, a self employed builder, said he shared the pensioners’ security concerns about the lights, adding that people have vandalised his car and keep trying to get into his work van.

Coun Fay Howard (Lab, Parks) said lighting was important not just for householder security but also to light a key route to and from Cavendish Square.

A spokesman for Scottish and Southern Electricity said it had not been told about the problem and was not responsible because maintaining streetlights themselves was a council job.

Swindon Council was unavailable to comment.