It appears council leaders are just not seeing the light when it comes to climate change in north Essex.

A street light in Rowhedge, which provides a useful beacon at night, is shining pointlessly during the day - and has done so for the last eight months.

The lamp, in Rectory Road, is wasting energy because, engineers say, it is too close to overhead electricity cables to fix.

Resident Doreen Moules contacted the council after hearing an environmental speech.

She said: "We're getting lectured the whole time about being energy savers, but every time we go out we see that street light's still on - it's a joke."

An Essex County Council spokesman told the Gazette their engineers had been out to investigate.

She said: "The light is too close to the overhead electricity cables, which makes it unsafe for our engineers to carry out the necessary work.

"We are liaising with EDF to assess all of our options, including switching off the power cable to allow the work to take place."