Dim view is taken of street lamp bulbs with no stamina

The council fitted 69 new lamps, designed to cast a bright white light, between South Bridge and the end of Newington Road in October 2006.

The 250-watt metal halide lamps – similar to those recently installed at Edinburgh Castle – are meant to have a life of 12,000 hours, or three years of use.

In fact, the life expectancy has been closer to six months, and the council has already been forced to replace 32 of the bulbs.

All the problem bulbs will now be inspected, and officials have told residents they will be replaced with "a type of lamp that has already been established as reliable throughout the city".

Southside Community Council has been so concerned at the repeated failures and the time taken to replace the bulbs that it submitted two freedom of information requests in a bid to find out what was being done.

Environment spokeswoman Hilary McDowell asked if the city council was happy with the performance of the bulbs. The authority said it was not.

The reply also said council officials had contacted the manufacturer of the lamps to point out the unsatisfactory performance.

A second batch of the lamps was supplied free of charge, but these proved just as bad as the first.

Ms McDowell said: "It was pretty obvious when the bulbs started failing that there was a problem with them, as some only lasted about six months.

"What has surprised me is the length of time it has taken the council to do anything about this, and the fact that it proved so difficult to get information.

"There is an issue of health and safety, as there are a lot of roadworks and dug-up pavements in the area. When people are wandering in the dark they could injure themselves."

Local councillor Cameron Rose admitted the bulbs should have been replaced sooner. "These lights were supposed to last three years, but obviously they have been going long before that," he said.

"While that appears to be a manufacturing fault, there has been a failing on the part of the council in not sorting this problem sooner. I am sure they will have learned the lessons from this, however, and hopefully we won't have a similar problem in future."

The city council was unable to say how much the original batch had cost – only that it always aimed to deliver the "best service in the most cost-effective way".

A spokeswoman said: "A new type of lamp was installed within a small area of the city centre in October 2006 on a trial basis.

"However, some of these were flawed and failed prematurely, and were then replaced free of charge by the manufacturer. The remaining 37 are due to be inspected this week."