Rear light unit upgrade

I'm doing a few upgrades to my 2002 L322. My latest thing is a pair of super charged rear lamp units (not the LED type). The old ones where looking grim especially the n/s. Being an early model the lamps don't have the red reflective strip on the side like the later ones do. I notice on the new lamps there is a bulb holder to light this part up, my car doesn't have the connection for this obviously. I'm guessing I can just spur off the loom to make this work or would it upset the bulb failure system due to another load?

The side illumination is only for the NAS spec cars
Not needed in the UK

Plus I think they look silly

I did think I'd not seen any lit up. Plug and play it is then