A WRAXALL woman is appealing for more street lights to be turned on in her neighbourhood to enable her to walk to work safely.

Susan Morgan, of Elm Lodge, says she is terrified as she sets off to work through the dark streets at 5am each morning.

The 50-year-old mother-of-one only has a 10-minute walk to get to her cleaning job at Tesco in Stock Way North, Nailsea, but she says she can barely see her feet in front of her, let alone any dangers in her path, and has taken to walking in the middle of the road.

She said: “I tripped up the kerb twice so decided to walk in the middle of the road.

“The street lights are on in my road, but as you get to the roundabout it’s pitch black and my heart starts racing.

“I rang North Somerset Council and they said to get a torch. I got the biggest one I could find, but it doesn’t make a lot of difference.

“On the way there’s a green and bushes and it’s quite frightening.

“I’ve been thinking about giving up my job but it took me a year to find one.”

Mrs Morgan moved to Wraxall from Manchester to be near her family and has been looking for a job ever since.

She does not have a car so was delighted when she got a job just a 10-minute walk from her home.

She said: “I have been trying to get this job for nearly a year, to benefit me and my daughter, but I may have to quit my job due to the danger in the streets.

“I find it very frightening because I don’t know what to expect.

“I don’t think it’s right that such a big area should be pitch black.

North Somerset Council has turned thousands of street lights off across the district between midnight and 5am in a bid to cut costs.

The phased switch-off has been just one of a series of strict austerity measures the authority has implemented as it looks to plug a budget gap of more than �86million.