No funding for public lighting in busy Clare estate that is in 'almost total darkness'

The Ennis Municipal District (MD) has said there is no funding available to improve public lighting at the entrance of a busy housing estate in the town. 

At a recent meeting of the MD, Fianna Fáil Councillor Antoinette Baker Bashua put forward a Notice of Motion regarding the Glensheen Estate on the Drehidnagower Road, asking the Council to "intervene without delay."

According to Cllr Baker Bashua: "This entrance is in almost total darkness, creating a clear safety hazard for pedestrians and motorists. The existing lights on the Glensheen side are too far apart to illuminate the entrance, while the low-level lights across from Gort na Rí are now completely blocked by overgrown trees, providing no effective lighting whatsoever." 

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She requested that Clare County Council carry out a night-time inspection of the location, trim the overgrown trees that are obstructing the lights, upgrade or replace the low-level lights with standard-height public lighting and install additional lighting at the Glensheen entrance if required.

"This is a simple but urgent safety issue and action is needed before an accident occurs," said the Councillor. 

In a written reply, Pat Lynch, Executive Engineer in the Roads Department, confirmed that there is no funding in public lighting maintenance to provide any additional lighting requests from the public, only having a budget to fix existing public lighting.

He said, "If you require, we can ask our public lighting contractor to do a night-time inspection to check the existing lighting levels and then do a lighting design to show what additional lighting is required for this location and also we can request a costing with or without civil works for the installation of this lighting but these costs will have to be funded from the Ennis MD budgets."

Mr Lynch concluded by saying it is the responsibility of the Ennis Municipal District to keep existing trees cut back when necessary where they are infringing with the lighting output of the public lights.

Also replying to this Notice of Motion was Donnagh Murphy, A/Senior Executive Engineer, who agreed with the night-time inspection recommendation, to be followed by a lighting design at the location. After this, a lighting proposal, including costings, can then be explored. 

He said that the Ennis MD will also commit to carrying out an assessment of the existing trees at this junction which may be impacting on public lighting.