A company which repairs faulty street lights in West Sussex has been slammed for allowing a huge backlog of repair work to build up.

Hundreds of street lights are already out of action with more than 500 new faults being reported every week to a phone hotline.

Now DW Lighting, which took over the contract last July, has agreed to hire more electricians to work in the county.

The Hertfordshire-based company could also face losing money under the terms of the contract which covers 70,000 street lights and illuminated road signs.

A county council spokesman confirmed: "There is a provision for financial penalty clauses included in the contract."

The company is supposed to repair a faulty street light within seven days of it being reported but the county council says that in most parts of West Sussex people have reported that lights are still out of action after several weeks.

The county council's Cabinet member for Community Services, coun David Dewdney, admitted it could be February before the full terms of the contract are being met.

He said the bad weather had led to a big increase in faults and the use of mobile repair platforms had been restricted in some areas because of flooding.

But he added: "I am extremely disappointed with the level of performance that has been achieved even allowing for the disruption that everyone has suffered from the flooding and poor weather.

"However I am pleased the contractor has recognised this and taken action to increase staffing levels to deal with this crisis.

"I can only apologise to people who are still experiencing problems and everyone is working very hard to restore the service as soon as possible."

Managing Director of DW Lighting Terry Gardner said: "We are taking extra measures to combat the various problems and hope there will be a satisfactory resolution in the near future."