A TAUNTON man with a disability is pointing the finger of blame at the county council after he had a night-time fall on the doorstep of his home.

David Parsons has criticised the local authority, claiming nobody informed him that the street lighting outside his bungalow had been removed.

Mr Parsons, who is registered disabled, fell over in the dark after leaving his home in Holway Road a fortnight ago today (November 7).

Fortunately, he was not seriously injured and managed to pick himself up.

But he is angry that there was no warning from the council that the street lights had been taken down.

The council says it had taken down a number of ageing lights in a line along the road for safety reasons as they had become corroded.

It is planning to install replacements in the coming weeks ahead of the Christmas period.

Mr Parsons, who was left with limited mobility following a motoring accident back in 2003, told the County Gazette: “I came out of the front door at 7pm or 8pm a fortnight ago and it was pitch black.

“I couldn’t see anything because there was no lighting at all and had a fall.

"I bruised my hip and it was a little painful., but I was able to get myself up again."

Mr Parsons added: "The street light outside my home was just a stump. That's all that was left of it.

"The pole and the lamp had been taken down. It all looked very strange.

"They’d just disappeared overnight as far as I’m concerned.

“Nobody warned me about it. Nobody seemed to know anything about it. You’s think they’d tell everyone.

"I was shocked.

"When I contacted the council they didn't tell me why the lights had been taken down."

Mr Parsons, who is aged 59 and who used to play in a local band, added that a whole line of street lights over a distance of a couple of hundred yards had been removed.

He added: “It was certainly a shock, but we haven’t been told by anyone why the lights were removed.

"Fortunately I wasn't really badly injured, but that was more by luck than judgement.”

A spokesman for Somerset County Council confirmed that the lighting columns had been removed along a stretch of Holway Road.

He added: “During our routine maintenance we identified a number of columns in Holway Road that were severely corroded at the neck joint.

"Due to the risk of structural failure the decision was taken to cut the columns down."

The spokesman added: "We are currently working with our term maintenance contractor to get these units back in light as soon as possible and they are currently programmed to be reinstalled in early December."