Residents still in the dark over faulty street lights

LARGE swathes of public lighting are currently out of action and the Co Carlow public have had enough.

That was the message from a local councillor at the recent county council meeting, with many members expressing the frustrations felt by residents left in the dark in many areas across the county.

Cllr John Cassin raised the issue, pointing out that “a lot of lights are out of action”, many since before the recent severe weather.

“The council is not getting value for the money spent and the response from this new company looking after them has been poor,” he said.

“I know we are waiting for ESB Networks for the lights at Green Lane, but there are lots of other areas with outages: Staplestown Road, Closh to the Tullow Road, on Tullow Street there’s been outages … the response needs to be better. People are depending on lights for safety. We saw that in the recent cold weather when walking on the footpaths, we really need lights,” stated cllr Cassin.

Cllr Fintan Phelan agreed that there is “a real problem with public lighting”, adding that this was “the fourth or fifth meeting in a row” where the issue of public lighting was raised.

“There are large swathes of lights off and I understand it has been a busy period for ESB Networks, but we are getting it in the neck from the public and rightly so. There’s large swathes of outages and it needs to be resolved. All of us as councillors have been getting it right throughout Christmas,” said cllr Phelan.

Cllr Andrea Dalton accepted that work was being carried out on public lighting, but said this was not being communicated to the public, adding that the reason why large swathes of public lighting are not working needed to be communicated more effectively.

“Mountain View has been left two or three months without public lighting,” she stated. “We all know and the public know that infrastructural upgrades take time. People accept that; it’s all down to communication,” added cllr Dalton.

Cllr Tommy Kinsella pointed out that there was some good news in Ballinkillen, where “ten lights were out for ten years, but eight are back now”.

Chief executive Coilín O’Reilly said there are 6,600 public lights in the county, with approximately 150 currently out; however, because they are concentrated in particular areas, the problem appears worse. He stated that the lights at Green Lane have been repaired twice and broken again, indicating there is a more fundamental problem in the area that requires ESB Networks.

Mr O’Reilly fully accepted cllr Dalton’s point that better communication is needed, adding that it was “embarrassing for us” when these situations arise. He said it was “probably the third meeting in a row” where public lighting was discussed and also pointed out that the delay in lighting in Ballinkillen was not the fault of the local authority.