Councillor Mary Linehan-Foley asked the November sitting of the East Cork Municipality for a full report on why there’s no street lighting in Lisgoold Village.
“From Sean Buckley Terrace towards the playground and the community hall there is no lighting whatsoever. It’s a safety hazard coming into the winter months” she said.
The councillor added ” residents have been requesting this for the past 20 years. Nothing has been done, they feel let down.”
David Clarke Senior Engineer Roads Cork County Council told the councillor ” my understanding of the budget for public lighting is that it is agreed at county level. There is no allocation locally to the roads area. There is a Public lighting Engineer based in Mallow who has the responsibility for a county wide programme. For all these areas where there are requests for new public lighting unless council makes provision in its annual budget for new public lighting it’s not going to happen. That’s something members need to consider” he said.
Councillor Linehan-Foley told Mr Clarke “you had new estates built in the area. You had people moving into the community, and you had a community hall and playground. While these public facilities were being looked after the basic public lighting wasn’t .
It’s a health and safety issue when there are kids from a playground walking along a path that is jet black. ”
Mr Clarke retorted “at local level in regards to roads maintenance etc. as I said it doesn’t come under our remit locally. If funding is to be provided here, that is something that will need to be dealt with at council level. ”
Fine Gael Councillor Michael Hegarty added “we are making provisions for foot path repair. We also need to make provision for lighting, we had it before. We need to put something in place with public lighting as well” he said.
Mr Clarke reiterated ” funding is the issue, that will be decided at county level “