Residents in housing estate in Tipperary have been left in the dark by council

Residents of an estate in Tipperary have been left in the dark by the council, a recent Municipal District meeting was told.
The Tipperary/Cahir/Cashel Municipal District held its monthly meeting for November on Monday November 24, where the issue relating to a housing estates street lights not working was brought up by council members.

Sinn Fein Cllr Annemarie Ryan was the first to discuss the issue with the meeting, stating that residents of Avondale Crescent in Tipperary Town had been in touch with her regarding the broken lights.

“There’s no lights whatsoever, it’s pitch black when you go in there,” she told the meeting. The councillor went on to explain that the issue began due to the new N74 roadworks project and residents have had no lights for a few weeks. She asked if it was possible for the council to put a lighting tower in the estate, if a date had not yet been set for the problem to be fixed.

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Fine Gael Cllr John Crosse supported Cllr Ryan’s comments and said that ‘it’s frustrating for people living there.” He explained his frustrations with the light's current service providers to the meeting.

“When we changed providers for the lights a year ago, we were guaranteed a better service and I’m afraid I can’t report any better service than we’ve got from the previous providers, SSE electricity. Someone needs to be held accountable. There’s a lot of issues on the streets at night and people are in fear, they need to feel safe when they’re walking around at night,” said the councillor.

Independent Cllr John O’Heney also supported the issue around public lighting in Avondale Crescent, Tipperary Town.

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Fine Gael Cllr Mary Hanna Hourigan told the meeting that she was also receiving a lot of queries about the lights out in the Tipperary Town estate. She raised particular concerns about people living in the Cluain Arann residential unit, which is an older person's facility located at Avondale Crescent.

“My issue is for everybody living there and safety issues with the dark but in particular for the residential unit as some people there are active and full-time residents there. Any pressure we can put to get those repaired as soon as possible will be really welcome,” explained Cllr Hourigan. Fine Gael Cllr Declan Burgess also had a query relating to public lighting.

“People and businesses have come to me about how dark the new LED lighting is in the town centre,” said the councillor. He asked the council if these lights could be looked at as they are dark and “there’s obviously concerns over safety in these dark winter nights that we’re in,” he explained.

The District Engineer for the council responded to councillors concerns saying that there are issues with cable damage in relation to public lighting. He told the meeting that the council will get an update on Avondale Crescent and the lighting there and they will also review the specifications for the new LED lighting in Cashel.