When I saw there were to be some Christmas lights in Croydon town centre this year, for the first time in a number of years I actually started to feel a degree of optimism about Croydon's future (Christmas lights come down as South End runs out of sockets, Croydon Guardian, December 6).

Sadly that optimism was misplaced, as reported in the Croydon Guardian - part of Croydon has been left in the dark after a Christmas lights blunder.

This farce begs the question, if the council is unable to organise something a simple as Christmas lights; how on earth are they going to manage and organise the much needed regeneration of the decaying town centre?

KEN FROST received by email