Tipperary County Council told it's taking up to two months to get public lights repaired

Delays of up to two months in repairing public lighting were highlighted by frustrated councillors at Tipperary County Council’s annual Budget Meeting where approval was given for the council’s public lighting operational costs budget to increase by over €500,000 next year.

Cappawhite based Fine Gael Cllr Mary Hanna Hourigan complained to council management that she had been trying since September to get one public light fixed in a very busy area in Tipperary Town.

“I am tired of ringing and emailing and being told repeatedly that it’s a busy time of year,” she said.

Her party colleague from Clogheen Cllr Marie Murphy had a similar story.

She was still waiting two months on after requesting the repair of public lighting in a housing estate.

She pointed out ten days used to be the turnaround time for repairing public lights after they were reported to be not working.

“Two months is unacceptable. I know there is a lack of technicians, but we need to get a better service than two months to repair lights.”

Clonmel councillors Richie Molloy (Ind) and Siobhán Ambrose (FF) highlighted cases of public lights in the town awaiting repairs for over a month.

Cllr Ambrose said the area in Glenconnor, Clonmel where the light was out for over a month was a very dark area at night and a neighbourhood used by people travelling home from shift work.

She said the Council was the poster boy and girl for changing public lights over to more environmentally friendly LED lights but it was falling down in relation to repairs.

Fine Gael Cllr Mark Fitzgerald from Cloneen noted the Council will be spending an extra €500,000 on public lighting next year and asked if there was any stipulation in the repairs contract to improve the turnaround time for repairs?

The Council’s Director of Roads Services Liam Brett agreed it wasn’t right that public lights were out of action that long. He explained the Council appointed a new contractor to maintain public lights in recent weeks.

This contractor had increased the crews carrying out repair works in the days leading up to the Budget Meeting and had given a commitment to increase repairs turnaround times.

Mr Brett explained the Council needed an extra €500,000 for its public lighting operational costs budget for next year because the Council didn’t experience any of the energy costs increases of the past few years due to the energy contract it had in place.

This contract was renewed in October and the extra €500,000 was required to cover inflationary costs. “We literally need the money to keep the lights on,” he told councillors.

The meeting heard that about 11,000 of the county’s 18,600 public lights still have to be changed over to energy and cost saving LED lights.

Mr Brett said it was the Council’s intention to be very close to having all those lights changed to LED lighting by next December.