Lakeland Drive residents not in dark any more

Residents of Lakeland Drive, Grange, Mullingar, are no longer in the dark, as their long running battle to have streetlights in their estate repaired has ended with good news.

In fairness to Westmeath County Council, they responded to a query from the Westmeath Examiner (see below) and on the morning of Friday week last, a crew was out to do the work.

Jim Baker had contacted the Examiner to express his annoyance that only one of three streetlights in the estate had been working since last summer. He said that the whole estate was “like a dungeon” when you walk in.

There are about 17 houses on the horseshoe shaped road. Most of the residents are older people, in their 60s and 70s, Mr Baker said. He said that he and others had been on to Westmeath County Council and local councillor, Mick Dollard, since last October or November, but nothing had happened, and each of the council and the ESB told him they are not to blame.

He praised Cllr Dollard for raising the matter at a council meeting.

Mr Baker said he narrowly missed pedestrians when he and his wife, both in their 70s, were driving home one evening recently, at about 9pm. There were people walking across the road and luckily, Mr Baker was driving slowly because he did not see them until he was “nearly on top of them”.

The shop is only five minutes across the road from where Mr Baker lives, but he would drive, not walk, to it at night because of the lack of public lighting. He always reverses into his driveway because if he were to reverse out, he would not be able to see anybody walking. People are afraid to go out walking in the evenings in case they are knocked down or mugged, he said.

“We used always to have three lights. We still have three lights, but only one is working. We aren’t looking for new lights. The lights are there, they just aren’t on,” Mr Baker said.

He said the lights had not been working since the summer but “we didn’t miss them until the dark evenings came in”.

He went on to say that the lights in Woodlands, across the road, have been upgraded and, in one spot, there is the new light and the old one, side by side, both lit. He claimed, however, that inadequate lighting is a problem in other estates too.

In response to Mr Baker’s complaint, the council said they and their lighting contractor are carrying out an annual lighting retrofit programme across the county. In a statement, they said the contractor has been prohibited from carrying out routine maintenance on the lanterns at Lakeland Drive as they are directly fed from the ESB network, and ESB health and safety regulations now prohibit any operations on direct fed networks except by ESB staff.

The council and their lighting contractor are investigating long-term solutions to retrofit the lighting in estates such as Lakeland Drive. In the meantime, an alternative temporary fitting is being trialled and that could allow the council to get these lights operational on a short-term basis. The council have requested that the lighting contractor assess if the infrastructure in Lakeland Drive is suitable for the temporary fitting.

The council have also requested a meeting with the ESB to try to work out a way to resolve this issue, the statement concluded.