PONTYPOOL residents claim they are being made prisoners in their own homes because of Torfaen council's controversial street light switch-off.

As the clocks are due to move back an hour, the residents of Greenhill Road, Pontypool, are determined to keep fighting Torfaen council to have their street lights turned back on, 18 months after they were left in the dark.

Resident of Greenhill Road Barbara Vaughan, 65, says she is not looking forward to the coming winter months.

She said: "I am dreading the clocks moving back as it cuts the daylight and I'm afraid to go out. They are sentencing me to a life sentence, like I'm a prisoner."

Another resident, David Bassett, explained that there were five street lights in the road, and last year four were switched off as part of Torfaen¹s decommissioning scheme. Following three break-ins in the road, one street light was subsequently switched back on, but it still leaves the middle of the busy road in darkness.

He said: "People won't even walk to the local shop, or even step outside, because of how dark it is."

Thousands of lights were switched off in Torfaen since February 2009 in a bid by the council to save money and also to reduce its carbon footprint.

By January 2011 a total of 643 written appeals were received by Torfaen council, all of which were assessed and replied to.

This was seen as a strain on resources and it was proposed in April that the appeals process be formally discontinued, but councillors rejected this.

Mr Bassett added: "To consider discontinuing the appeals process is madness - it"s like they want us silenced."

A council spokesman said: "The lights that we fit with dimming controls or low- energy lamps over the coming months will be lights that were never turned off. We are not making any changes to lights that were switched off during the initial street lighting review.

"The appeals process is still in place and we will continue to review appeals on an individual basis."