KILDARE: Street lights are taking a longer than a year to fix

It’s taking more than a year for broken street lights to become functioning again.

Kildare County Council was asked by two councillors Bill Clear and Nuala Killeen to examine the reason for delays and to either seek guarantees that lights will be fixed or to impose penalties if this isn’t done.

They also sought reports to be issued every month detailing the number of outstanding repairs.

She told a KCC meeting that in one case a light was not repaired for a year and she said there is a disconnect between ESB Networks and the contractor employed on its behalf.

“There is a problem with repairs, some are out longer than a year,” she said.

Cllr Peggy O’Dwyer criticised the use of paper forms to make a report saying it gives rise to the claim that the documentation was not received.

Another councillor, Chris Pender, said one light in Newbridge has not worked since 2017. There were complaints that an app system used to report and track repairs is not working properly and Cllr Bernard Caldwell said “night patrols” to detect malfunctioning lights are not taking place.

KCC is responsible for the maintenance of 26,000 public lights in the county. As of December last, 3,597 faults have been repaired in 2023 with the average percentage of faults at any time  numbering 1.04% of public lights. 

According to KCC official Celina Barrett “this is slightly above the target performance figure of 1% of public lighting stock.”

She said the council engages on an ongoing basis with the contractor and the ESB to reduce repair times as much as possible. 

There are penalty clauses within the service level agreement with the maintenance contractor regarding routine repairable faults and non-routine major faults. 

All light repairs now include a provision for the replacement of the older lanterns with modern LED fittings, which are eco friendly and much more energy efficient.

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Councillors were also told that the  timescale allowed for the repair of lights has increased to 42 days to accommodate the LED works. 

Ms Barrett also said that an energy efficient project due to be completed in 2025 will “impact significantly on the ongoing maintenance of public lighting and future maintenance contracts will take these changes into consideration.”

Ms Barrett also said that the provision of monthly reports would be “onerous' ' and she instead suggested reports be issued every three months.