01 Jun 2026
Ornate heritage lamp posts dating back more than 100 years are being removed and destroyed by county contractors.
Many of the cast iron posts located around St Albans Conservation Area face being removed by Ringway and modern steel replacements installed instead.
They include four in Clarence Road, at least three on Townsend Drive, one in Hall Place Gardens, Avenue Road, Batchwood View, Waverley Road, and Pondfield Crescent, plus various in Lancaster Road.
One of the last few posts dating back to around 130 years ago is also facing destruction in York Road.
These lamp posts have already been adapted to modern lighting standards, but HCC claims they have become dangerous due to corrosion, with the internal wiring and its protective insulation also having deteriorated over time.
Mary Conneely, chair of St Albans Civic Society, said: “This has been happening across the city for about five years, the Civic Society has raised this issue previously, when without notice teams would arrive and cut the tops off the old Victorian-style lamps and fit a modern one.
“When challenged HCC would respond and say it was all about energy savings. We’ve been told HCC did not need to seek planning permission but could just go ahead.
“We raised the issue of the lamp posts being in a Conservation Area and why couldn’t HCC retrofit existing lanterns with innovative LED ‘light engines’ rather than simply replacing the entire units, when such an approach maintains the traditional look of the Victorian fixtures while upgrading the internal components to modern standards.
“In short the Civic Society never got a satisfactory reply.
We believe that this needs to be taken up with the county councillors in these areas, pressing for more awareness and understanding yet again, that once these heritage assets are removed they are unlikely to ever be replaced.”
St Albans & Hertfordshire Architectural & Archaeological Society President John Morewood said: “”It is really disappointing that HCC of their own volition are doing this. It is also symptomatic of their approach to heritage issues. In Canterbury earlier this year Kent County Council proposed the same thing. But they were prompted by what they referred to as ‘structural defects’ in the ironwork and the fact that the foundry which produced the iron lamposts over a century ago had gone out of business and therefore could not manufacture replacements. Their proposal provoked a major outcry covered by the BBC and national newspapers.
“HCC’s approach here seems to be very different, no discussion, no consultation, no alternative approach considered. Thank goodness the St Albans Times is trying to hold them to account.”
Heritage campaigner David Kaloczi said: “It is sad to see so much of our historic street furniture being needlessly destroyed and to think we are funding this through ever-increasing taxation.
“So much other basic highway maintenance is required, yet HCC is focusing on this vandalism. Given the track record of the Liberal Democrat-controlled district and county councils I suppose it is inevitable that we will continue to see the speeding up of the destruction of our historical district and what made it special.
“We have, I believe, reached a point of no return, and sadly this is what people have voted for!”
A spokesperson for Herts county council responded: “The heritage-style street lighting columns in these locations have been inspected and found to be no longer in a safe structural condition and will need to be replaced.
“Our policy is to replace columns on a like for like basis within a Conservation Area to protect the local character. However, where heritage-style columns are outside of these areas, we replace them with standard lighting columns. As these works are part of essential safety maintenance, there is no requirement for public consultation.
“We run a Highways Locality Budget (HLB) scheme, where residents can suggest highways improvements to their local councillor. In the past local councillors have used the HLB funding to pay for the extra over costs for replacing heritage style columns outside of the Conservation Area.”
