Residents who feared someone would be knocked over by a car on an unlit country road have won their battle to get street lighting put up.

People in Harriston had been pleading with the authorities to install lighting on the road between the village and Aspatria, which is a necessary route for many walkers, including schoolchildren, on a daily basis.

There had been no lights on the stretch where the road out of the village meets the main road and residents thought it was just a matter of time before someone was knocked over.

It's a situation villagers had been trying to find a solution to for about three years.

A group of them clubbed together to lobby local councils and even wrote to the area's MP Sue Hayman about the issue.

And finally their calls were answered earlier this year when Cumbria County Council agreed to install lighting along a 200m stretch of road. Work to put the lights was due to begin this week.

The residents' problems were highlighted by The Cumberland News last year.

Phillip Thomson, 48, one of the residents leading the fight, said: "It was a huge step for us with the article in the paper.

"Now we are absolutely delighted. It's come at the right time with winter coming and the clock changing as the road would've been like the black hole of Calcutta.

"It's comforting to know that that if the kids are going to after school clubs they aren't going to be walking back in the dark.

"There is a pavement along the road but it's not the widest. It could be really dark and you couldn't see the hand in front of your face.

"Everybody is really pleased."

Villagers had also said there was street lighting on the stretch of road as far back as the 1950s and 1960s.

According to the county council, the previous lighting on that stretch of road had belonged to Allerdale Council but were removed when Electricity North West replaced the poles they had sat on.

However, the county council agreed to step in.

A spokesman for the authority said: "The local county councillor Jim Lister asked the council to come up with a proposal. We then added the scheme to our 2017/18 implementation period which was then approved by the local committee for Allerdale.

"The new lighting will meet with the existing lighting in the village and go all the way out to Aspatria."