ALMOST 2,000 out-of-date Kirklees street lights are an "intolerable risk" to the public, it was revealed today.
But the posts - and thousands of other unsafe ones - are to be replaced as part of a £6m programme.
Kirklees Council chiefs gave the green light to the 10-year spending plan after it was revealed that more than a quarter of the district's 50,000 street lights were potentially dangerous.
A report, which was updated in November, 2002, showed that 14,000 units were ``potentially dangerous", with 1,800 columns classed as an ``intolerable risk".
The report also showed that half of the lights fell below British lighting standards.
The council's transport scrutiny panel was told yesterday that everything was now in place to begin the decade-long programme of replacement, with an estimated cost of £600,000 a year.
The panel, which acts as a council watchdog on decisions, was told that during the current year the first 1,200 columns classed as an "intolerable" risks would be uprooted and replaced.
From 2006, work will begin on other columns thought to pose a ``substantial risk" of failure.
Specialists are now carrying out non-destructive testing techniques to determine the priority of replacement.
Council officer Howard Webb told the scrutiny panel this would be the biggest replacement programme for more than 10 years.
He added that the programme would bring the whole street lamp system into a much better state of repair.
