THE mother of a man who died crossing a darkened road in Colchester has praised the borough council for offering to pay to turn streetlights back on.

Colchester Council wants to pay asmuch as £185,000 to end Essex County Council’s controversial blackout in the borough.

The move has won praise from Heidi Sherwood, whose 25-year-old son, Nick, was hit by a car and killed in St Andrew’s Avenue in the early hours of Sunday, February 8.

When they proposed the move, borough councillors cited Mr Sherwood’s death as a reason to spend money.

An inquest into the circumstances surrounding his death has yet to be held.

However, in an impassioned letter to county councillors, Mrs Sherwood asks: “To you and your statistics, maybe just one life was lost, but if that one life was your child, your brother, your boyfriend, your cousin, wouldn’t it matter to you then?

“From the moment your children are born, youwould do anything to keep them safe and protect them from harm.

“Then, as they grow up and become more independent, you rely on the rules of society to take over. These rules are decided upon by our MPs and local councils, who supposedly represent us. One would hope the decisions they make would keep us safe.

Health and safety measures are stringently implemented in the workplace, and yet on our roads, where there is more likelihood of serious injury or death, Essex County Council does not even consider them important enough to light up.”

Mrs Sherwood, who lives in Uxbridge, West London, added the only thing her son did wrong was to go out drinking with friends and get separated from them in a strange town.

Her letter adds: “He got disorientated on his way back, as there weren’t streetlights to help him.

He shouldn’t even have been in St Andrew’s Avenue, as it wasn’t on his route.

“Thank goodness Colchester’s councillors are humane and do have a conscience.

“It’s too late for our son, but hopefully, this will prevent any more needless fatalities.There is so much heartbreak in the world and if you can help to prevent some of it, why wouldn’t you?

“The grief and sadness we are suffering is, at times, quite unbearable. If you witnessed your normally happy-go-lucky 13-year-old son crying in despair at the loss of his big brother, there would be no doubt in your mind about putting a few streetlights back on.”

! Rodney Bass county councillor responsible for highways, announced earlier this week that from next Monday night, the countywide noon-5am switch-off would be shortened, with lights going off at 1am every night except Sundays.

Mr Bass has yet to say if he will accept the borough council’s offer to pay to get Colchester’s lights turned back on all night. The Tory councillor recently dismissed a similar approach from Labour-controlled Harlow Council.