Council staff ‘driven insane’ dealing with the ESB

A CARLOW Co Council official has said dealing with the ESB has left staff “heartbroken” as they try to get public lighting connected in housing estates ahead of the winter months.

At the September meeting of Tullow Municipal District, senior engineer Orla Barrett told elected representatives that council staff were “tormented” trying to contact the ESB.

“Our hearts are broken, whatever you think about yours. We are tormented ringing, calling and following up with them,” said Ms Barrett, adding that the issue seems to be due to a lack of staff in the ESB.

The issue was raised by independent councillor Will Paton, who said he was pleased to see works finally happening at Old Chapel Lane in Tullow town, but could not understand how the ESB had not made connections at Tullow Hill, despite street light poles being in place for the past 18 months.

“I cannot understand how they have the gall to ask for money up front to make those connections and they actually haven’t done it in 18 months,” cllr Paton said, adding that there is no “excuse for it”.

Fine Gael cllr Ben Ward echoed the sentiments of his colleague and said it was “unacceptable that we are waiting this long to get basic services because there is no-one else to do it”, alluding to the fact that the ESB is the sole body responsible for connecting public lighting.

“They are not fulfilling the obligations that they have, and I am concerned that we are going into the winter now again and we have projects like Old Chapel Lane, where the said infrastructure has been put up by the council but we are waiting on the ESB to connect,” cllr Ward said.

He then asked that the council write to the ESB requesting that it come to a municipal district meeting to explain its position if a specific completion date for the aforementioned works could not be provided.

“Generally speaking, when we make an application, they take 90 days to come back with a design and the cost and then we have to pay the fees,” explained Ms Barrett.

However, she said there is a situation where the council could be waiting “the guts of up to a year” to receive the bill so it can be paid and only then will the engineers and electricians come out and do the necessary work.

“We are tormented across all of our pedestrian crossings and public lighting where there are faults,” Ms Barrett told the meeting. However, she said “great progress” had been made in the past month around public lighting faults, but new connections remain a “huge issue”.

“It’s not fair,” said an exasperated cllr Paton, with Ms Barrett agreeing, adding that council staff are “driven insane” by the amount of time wasted ringing ESB to try to get people on site for what should be routine work.