AN angry pensioner is urging the council to alter the brightness and colour of a new street light which he says are as bright as a football stadium’s.

Gordon Rogers, 80, of The Avenue, Wivenhoe, returned from a five-day break in the Isle of Wight to find the street light outside his house had been replaced with a bright, LED bulb.

But unlike the street’s other orange lighting, the new street light gives off a blinding white hue, has no form of diffusion and beams through Gordon’s second floor bedroom window even after the rest of the lights are turned off at 1am.

After painstakingly trying to contact Essex County Council for more than a week, Gordon is now pleading with them to deal with the problem and says he may even resort to smashing the bulb himself if they don’t.

Gordon, who has lived on the street for 50 years, said: “The light is really, really bright.

“The blinds we have don’t stop it from coming in, it’s a waste of electricity and there really is no need for it.

“Beforehand you wouldn’t even know there was a light outside because they were dim but now it’s like a football stadium.

“They have done nothing about it so I am thinking about going out there and smashing it myself.”

A spokesman for Essex Highways said the decision to upgrade to the more modern and brighter lights follows a growing trend which is seeing a switch to LED bulbs.

He said recently installed lights can take time respond to the programming that dictates when they should dim and switch off entirely.

He said: “Just like people are doing with bulbs in their own homes, the older types of lantern are being withdrawn and replaced with LED lights, which last longer, use less energy and scatter their light less.

“The light is a different colour from the old orange streetlights, but like most local authorities we have installed thousands already and experience informs us that people do adapt to their different lighting characteristics quickly.”