Doubts over maintenance of Trim’s public lights

Concerns over the maintenance of public lighting in Trim were expressed by local town councillors at their January meeting last week, following the recent transfer of responsbility for public lighting to Meath County Council and the appointment of new contractors. At their November 2010 meeting, Trim Town Council agreed to enter an agreement with Meath County Council whereby the county council would assume responsbility for maintenance of public lighting in the town. The idea behind the move was to cut down on costs through economies of scale and to provide a better service. At that time, councillors were told that a new system was being introduced where regular patrols of lighting would be carried out and that all faults reported would be repaired by a contractor within 10 days or penalties would kick in. However, at last week's council meeting, Cllr Ronan McKenna said there were a number of lights not working in the town that had not been fixed. “I have gone through various stages regarding the public lighting; first denial where I could not believe they were not fixed yet. I'm now at the stage of disappointment, and getting to the next stage of anger, but I won't ever get to the stage of acceptance,†said Cllr McKenna. He said he had raised the issue of the lights at the Navan Road junction at the November meeting and had great hopes for the new contractors. He added that he knew there was a lot of bad weather, but that the lights still had not been fixed and that it is one of the major junctions in the town. Cllr McKenna asked town engineer Vincent Collins to contact the contractors and have the two lights fixed as a matter of urgency. Cllr James O'Shea said he had brought up a list of lights that were out at a previous meeting after driving around the town the night before. He said he understood that the new contract stipulated that when lights are reported as being out, they must be fixed within 10 days. However, he said he had reported light failures in late October and they were still not fixed. Cllr O'Shea said at one stage there were 20 bulbs gone, though he noticed many had been fixed. However, there are still three lights out at Watergate Street. “We were told by the town clerk that the contractors were not operating because of the bad weather, but there was no snow in October and November and plenty of 10 days have gone by at this stage,†he remarked. Town clerk Brian Murphy explained that the new agreement only came into force on 4th December once it was passed by the full council and that patrols were suspended from 10th December for health and safety reasons in the poor weather. Cllr Ray Butler queried who councillors are supposed to contact to report when a light is out. He said he called the number they were given on the documentation but he still had to go back to the engineer to find out what was going on. Engineer Vincent Collins told councillors to report problems with lights to him and he would pass them on. He said the contractors would come out in an emergency but that they did not want to be sitting on the side of the road in the icy conditions in case someone crashed into them. He suggested that they wait a little longer to see how the new system works. Cllr Gerard Reilly said he hoped the situation did not end up like the cables on Castle Street which they had been waiting for the ESB to put underground for five or six years, even though they had been paid for the work. He said the biggest ratepayer in the town put in a system four years ago for the cables and gave a piece of land for a sub-station but the cables were still not underground. Cllr Reilly said that when they contacted the ESB about it, they were told that the council was not facilitating them with access to cottages at Castle Street and were putting the blame back on the council. “It is time to get it sorted,†said Cllr Reilly. Mr Collins said the ESB is in town at the moment and working on Loman Street but had not yet got to Castle Street. Cllr Reilly responded that he should take them by the hand and lead them to show them where Castle Street is. Cllr McKenna said Trim Castle is the primary tourist attraction in the town and Trim Castle Hotel is the biggest ratepayer. He said the issue was going on longer than some of the councillors had been elected despite it being consistently brought up. Cllr Trevor Golden said that if the ESB is saying there needs to be something sorted out on the council's side, they need to be facilitated as a priorty. He said they had done their street restoration and spent good money on ducting for the cables. Town manager Tadhg McDonnell said he would contact the ESB and find out what works it wanted the council to undertake for the Castle Street undergrounding to proceed.