Only one of the street lights is functional out of eleven for an estate of 29 houses

Councillors were in agreement that public lighting issues need to be sorted sooner rather than later in estates around the county. 

They were speaking after Cllr Frank Dolan asked Leitrim County Council to investigate the public lighting situation at Carberry Coast Estate in Tullaghan saying that he understood that only one of the street lights is functional out of eleven for an estate of 29 houses.

A report by the Roads office stated that Carberry Coast Estate is not currently taken in charge but is one of many estates under assessment for taking in charge, therefore the public lighting in this estate is currently not in charge of by Leitrim County Council.

In a previous response on the same issue, it was noted that while the council was previously unwilling to undertake any maintenance works to lights in estates that were not in charge due to the risk of exposure to injury claims, new protocol has been initiated to overcome this risk.

Cllr Mary Bohan asked the council to hold a taking in charge workshop in December "because we have huge issues, particularly in Dromahair. We have one estate with 13 public lights and just three are working. It's dangerous in the winter time and it's the residents that are suffering."

Cllr Felim Gurn said that he understood that "one of the issues is Uisce Éireann and this issue is coming at us now because it's the winter season and we have dark evenings and no lights on. People can't understand how the lights are not coming on."

Bernard Greene, Leitrim County Council, said it's a "misnomer that there is an issue with Uisce Éireann; it's wrong. There is no issue with Uisce Éireann."

Cllr Bohan responded that every time "I raised the issue of unfinished estates, I'm told it's Uisce Éireann."

However, Mr Greene again, stated that this was not the case. 

He said that in January, he hoped to hold workshops in each of the three MDs.