IT'S a case of "better the devil you know" for Llay councillors as they agreed to renew their Service Level Agreement (SLA) with Wrexham council in relation to street light repairs.

At a Llay Community Council meeting on Wednesday, Cllr Rob Walsh said he backed the decision to sign the new SLA, despite the fact residents are dissatisfied with the current level of service being provided.

He said: "I was quite critical at our last meeting about the time it was taking for lights to be fixed and residents are quite rightly irritated by it.

"I've raised those concerns with the council, but at the moment I feel it's case of better the devil you know than the one you don't. I think it's best to stick with them and try and iron out any concerns we have."

Cllr Walsh went on to say that the council don't do themselves any favours when saying repairs will be carried out within five days, only for the problem to remain unresolved after ten days or more.

He added: "If they were honest with the public and said they were over-stretched and it's going to take a bit longer than it used to, I could understand, but they don't."

The terms of the SLA will remain the same, but the cost of repairing each light has been reduced by around £2 per unit and while other community councils had formed consortiums to carry out their own repairs some are believed to be on to their third supplier in less than a year.

Cllr Sharon Roberts supported the decision to renew the agreement, but said it was important for the councillors to re-visit the decision should the service not improve over the next year.

She said: "I think next year we should see where we are a couple of months before this agreement ends and if we're still not happy, we can always look elsewhere."

Cllr John O'Keefe said the problem with Wrexham council was not simply down to poor service but the lack of communication, which he says is letting them down badly.

He said: "It's no good them saying they'll be out within five days, when the reality is it's going to be more like ten. They need to be more open and honest with us about these things."