Mason Williams

Ms Michaela Blackmore 
Assistant Coroner 
Warwickshire Justice Centre 
Newbold Terrace 
Leamington Spa 
CV32 4EL 

28th December 2023 

Dear Ms Blackmore,  

Resources Directorate 
Shire Hall, Warwick, CV34 4RL 
DX 723362 Warwick 5 

Director of Strategy, Planning & Governance  

www.warwickshire.gov.uk 

RE:   REGULATION 28 REPORT TO PREVENT FUTURE DEATHS 

FOLLOWING INQUEST INTO THE DEATH OF MASTER MASON WILLIAMS 

I refer to your report to the Chief Executive dated 10 November 2023 in which you raise 
concerns about faults with the street lighting on Trinity Rd, Piccadilly near Kingsbury.  

You  indicate  that  the  street  lighting  was  not  illuminated  at  the  time  of  the  road  traffic 
collision on 30th November 2022 that resulted in the death of Mason Williams and that 
this was due to a fault with the underground cabling which affected lamp posts numbered 
16 to 21 along Trinity Road.  Your report states that you are aware that this fault may 
have been caused by damage to the cabling as a result of a previous road traffic collision 
on 20 October 2022. 

You  have  written  to  the  Council  because  you  believe  that  action  should  be  taken  to 
prevent future deaths. 

The Council’s response 

The  Council’s  records  indicate  that  the  previous  road  traffic  collision  on  Trinity  Road 
occurred on 28 October 2022 and not 20 October 2022 when a street lighting column (no. 
18) was damaged by a vehicle.  The Council received police incident report 108 of the 
28/10/2022 notifying of a collision at the location.  The Council instructed its contractors 
to  attend  as  an  emergency  and  they  attended  on  28  October  2022.  On  attending,  the 
contractors  found  that  lighting  column  no.  18  had  been  hit  and  was  unsafe  so  took 
emergency action to cut down the column and prevent it from falling before a new column 
could be ordered and installed.    Damage to the underground cabling was not detected 
at this time. The Council was not aware that streetlights 16, 17, 19, 20 and 21 were out 
until 5 December 2022 when its contractors attended following the police report of the 
fatality and discovered the damaged cabling.  

  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 When  faults  with  street  lighting  are  identified,  officers  instruct  the  Council’s  contractor 
(
) to attend and carry out a repair.  The Council aims to attend and/or take 
action in respect of identified faults within the following timescales:  

Urgent or dangerous faults  

General faults  

Appropriate action within one hour depending on the 
severity of the situation  
Attend within five working days  

•  Light being out  
•  Dim  
•  Flickering/flashing  
•  On during the day  

Underground  electrical  cable 
faults  

Once  fault  has  been  identified  -  within  25  working 
days. Lighting with complex issues can take longer to 
resolve.  

The Council has the facility for members of the public to report street lighting faults via a 
‘Report it’ link on its home page of the website or by telephone via the Council’s Customer 
Service Centre.   

The  Council  uses  a  central  management  system  to  monitor  street  lighting  (known  as 
Telensa  PLANet).   Where  the  system  identifies  a  problem  with  a  streetlight  (such  as 
flickering) it raises an automatic fault alert.  The system does not have the functionality to 
raise a fault alert where there has been a complete loss of power to a streetlight column.   

Streetlights 16 to 21 on Trinity Road were out in November 2022 due a complete loss of 
power so there was no automatic alert. No faults with the street lighting on Trinity Road 
had been reported to the Council via the website or the Customer Service Centre.   

In  order  to  detect  a  complete  loss  of  power  to  a  streetlight,  officers  have  to  manually 
interrogate  the  central  management  system  to  check  for  lights  that  have  not 
communicated with the system and judge whether the problem is transient or due to an 
on-going issue with the power supply.  This work requires a level of specialist knowledge 
of  the  central  management  system.   In  October  and  November  2022  the  resource 
capacity within the street lighting team meant that it was not possible to carry out regular 
manual interrogation of the system. 

Details of Action Taken: 

1.  The  damaged  power  cabling  on  Trinity  Road  was  temporarily  repaired  by  the 
Council’s  contractors  on  5  December  2022  to  restore  the  street  lighting.    The 
lighting  column  damaged  on  28  October  2022  (no.  18)  was  replaced  and  a 
permanent repair to the cable carried out on 17 January 2023.  The street lighting 
on Trinity Road has been fully operational since that date. 

 
  
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2.  The  Council’s  street  lighting  team  has  recruited  two  additional  employees  who 
started  work  on  6  November  2023.    The  central  management  system  is  now 
interrogated by an appropriately qualified officer on a daily basis. This means that 
street lighting faults that are not alerted automatically (ie due to power outage) or 
are not reported by the public will be detected very quickly.  

3.  The Council continues to respond to all reports or detection of faults in line with the 

timescales referenced above.  

4.  The Council met with Telensa, its contracted supplier of the central management 
system, in March 2023 and highlighted the lack of an automatic systems alert in 
the  event  of  a  complete  power  loss  to  a  street  lighting  column.    Telensa  have 
advised that they will consider updates and improvements that could be made to 
the system.  The Council will continue to work with Telensa to pursue a solution to 
this issue.  

On behalf of the Council I would like to offer our deepest condolences to Mason’s family 
and friends.  I hope that this letter will give some assurance about the steps taken to 
make Warwickshire’s roads safer for all who use them.   

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any queries about the content of the 
Council’s response.  

Yours sincerely 

Director of Strategy, Planning & Governance