Frustrations in Waterford over pedestrian lights going off ‘once or twice a week’

Frustrations have been expressed over a set of pedestrian lights in Waterford city going off “once or twice a week”.

Independent councillor Declan Barry raised the issue at the March meeting of the Metropolitan District.

Cllr Barry said: “Continuously, maybe once or twice a week, the pedestrian lights are going off on the road there from the hospital roundabout to the Farronshoneen Roundabout.

“One outside Grow HQ was out for three or four days and especially the one outside the Solas Centre.

“I can count ten times it’s been off this year and then it’s only on three or four days and it’s gone again.

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“Why is that? Is there some sort of electrical fault? Why can’t we just solve that?”

In response, Senior Engineer Paul Johnston said that he would have to come back to Cllr Barry.

Mr Johnston said: “I’ll have to check on the issue of the pedestrian lights.

“There are some capacity issues there with the ESB in that area in general. It may be related to that but we’ll have to come back to you with a response.”

Meanwhile, independent councillor Joe Kelly raised the issue of the streetlights on the Quay near Rice Bridge.

Cllr Kelly said that a constituent has been emailing councillors over the lights being out in the area.

He continued: “I’m just wondering, are they still out and if they are out, why are they out? If they are out, can we get them fixed very urgently because that whole walkway will be in darkness.

“The ones on the other side of the bridge, that I raised at numerous meetings, were only fixed.

“They only lasted about two weeks and they’re out as well. So there seems to be a problem all along there. I’m wondering can I have an answer to that and can we look at fixing those.”

In response, Mr Johnston said that there are problems with the electrical cabling which is affecting the lights on the Quay.

“The Quay is unfortunately largely affected by the descending cable issue. We are working on solutions with that so it’s quite a delicate process,” he stated.

Mr Johnston told the meeting that approximately 1.47 per cent of all public lights in Waterford are currently not working, which he described as “quite good”.

Cllr Kelly raised the issue of the lights at the other side of Rice Bridge at the December meeting of the Metropolitan District.

He said that there are about four or five lights there that have been out for over two years.

He said that the council executive previously explained that there are “health and safety issues” at the location.

Cllr Kelly suggested a cherrypicker be used to repair the lights, describing it as “a simple solution”.

He continued: “I mean, more of it, just gross inaction from the council or the repair team or whoever is supposed to take care of it.

“It seems to me that there's no willingness to do anything, not that they can’t do it. That’s a simple solution, absolutely simple.

“Unless there’s some major problem beyond that, I don’t know, but that’s what’s being reported back to us.

“I think we should do that and fix those four or five lights. A crowd of fools is all we look like to people in my view.”

In response, Mr Johnston argued it wasn’t as simple as using a cherry picker to repair the lights.

He said: “Again, I understand your frustrations councillor but it’s unfortunately not just as simple as getting a cherry picker.

“You’d notice there last week we had quite a high tide and at high tide, the lights are outside the flood defences and the cables are actually getting wet.

“We are looking at a long-term solution and we will consider works on the inside of the flood defence scheme.”