More than £13,000 of damage was caused to traffic lights and street lamps in Perth city centre crashes last year, the council has revealed.
The local authority faced a bill of £10,920 to repair traffic lights which were knocked down in collisions in the city centre, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.
Being able to trace the drivers, the local authority were able to make sure the motorists’ insurance firms paid out on almost all the repairs.
In total, traffic lights were knocked down seven times between April 2018 and April 2019.
The most afflicted posts were the island lights outside the Grampian Hotel on York Place and the island lights outside the Police Station on Barrack Street, with both sets needing to be repaired twice.
The Barrack Street lights were damaged after a police car crashed into the them just metres from the Perth headquarters.
At the other end of Caledonian Road, the island lights on York Place have been knocked down repeatedly, with a separate FOI revealing they had to be replaced five times in 2017 alone – totalling around £9,000 of damage.
Council officers were also called out last year to repair damage done to lights outside the AK Bell Library on York Place, Dickens Bar on the corner of South Street and King Street and outside the Bridgend Inn where Main Street becomes Isla Road.
Two street lighting columns were also knocked over by vehicles in the city centre, totalling over £2,200.
Lamp-posts on Balhousie Street and the Dundee Road were both struck by vehicles, but the local authority only had to pay £100 towards the repairs.
A council spokesperson said: “Whenever possible, Perth and Kinross Council will recharge the cost of carrying out repairs to street lights and posts to the individual responsible for the damages, if they can be identified by Police Scotland.
“If the individual cannot be identified the repair costs are met by the council.”
Conservative councillor and convener of the Environment and Infrastructure Committee Angus Forbes added: “Whilst the cost of this type of damage is relatively small and in the majority of cases, it’s not actually paid by the council, this is still an inconvenience for other road users who may suffer delays due to traffic lights being out of action. “
