Significant funding needed to address Waterford street light woes
Cllr Damien Geoghegan said there were three lights out on Grattan Square, Dungarvan, pictured. Photo: Dan Linehan
A senior engineer at Waterford City and County Council has said significant funding will be needed to fix faulty street lights.
Gabriel Hynes said at the January sitting of the Dungarvan-Lismore District Council that legacy issues with cabling was the cause of the current issues.
“As you are aware, we have issues with our cabling underground. We inherited the system from ESB Networks in 2009, and those cables are gone by their sell-by date and need significant investment in those public lights because they need new cabling," said Mr Hynes. The engineer was responding to various lighting issues reported by councillors.
Cllr Damien Geoghegan said there were three lights out on Grattan Square.
“There was a light out there for a couple of years, and we were bringing it up constantly, and now that is fixed, and now another three lights have gone out. It’s six of one and half a dozen of another," said Cllr Geoghegan.
Cllr Joe O’Riordan echoed what Cllr Geoghegan said, calling the lights "unsuitable" and asked if there are plans to improve lighting on the square.
Mr Hynes responded that the issue on Grattan Square was the availability of fittings for the decorative lighting.
Cllr Niamh O’Donovan said there were 58 lights out on the system across the Lismore area. She said there were small numbers of lights out in villages in the area, which overall creates a significant problem.
“With these numbers being so small, we are bottom of the list realistically for that cable work to be done. So, I would like to speak up for the Lismore local electoral area,” said Cllr O’Donovan.
Mr Hynes said: “We are certainly not neglecting the Dungarvan-Lismore District. If it is a routine issue like a bulb out, that certainly can be sorted out by the contractor in a very short period of time.”
Cllr Donnchadh Mulcahy said lights on the Lismore bridge had been out for the last three months.
“Could we put some pressure on to get it done sooner rather than later? It is a heritage town," said Cllr Mulcahy.
Mr Hynes said the issue on the Lismore bridge was one of ducting, and new cabling was also needed.
Cllr Geoghegan asked that the council put together a report of all outages and what it would take to fix them. Mr Hynes said they are compiling a report at the moment so they can go to the department to get the funding required.
