Laois low energy streetlights on the increase but 'not safe'

Laois County Council is marching on with its plan to swap every yellow streetlight for white LEDs but councillors are still telling them they are simply too dark.

Over two thirds of the lights have been upgraded, saving an estimated €85,000 on the council's electricity bill.

That bill is estimated to be €600,000 for 2023. 

Cllr James Kelly on hearing an update at the March meeting of Laois County Council, repeated the complaint of many since the lights first went up.

"It's good you're hitting energy targets, but to me they are not safe. We are not getting the same visibility," he said.

He is unhappy that the 19 councillors have to use their annual discretionary budgets of €23,000 each, if they want extra streetlights for their areas.

"We are only able to do six if we each decide to concentrate on it in our budgets," he said.

It's "wrong," says Cllr Willie Aird.

"Mr Mulholland is driving this carbon footprint reduction. We were told the quality of light wouldn't change, but it has. I've people on to me who are in total darkness. I think it's wrong," he said, while praising the hard work of a council employee who has been  assigned to replace bulbs faster.

Cllr Conor Bergin said he is spending his entire fund on streetlights.

"There seems to be no consistency, there is a huge difference in the quotes that come in," he said.

Cllr James Kelly estimates that a fifth of the budget for new lights is paid by the councillors, and asked for a commitment to install more new lights.

Meanwhile broken lights are still not being repaired fast enough they say. One company is contracted by the council to fix all streetlights, and the council confirmed they are meant to do patrols and identify lights needing repairs.

"The service we are getting from Killary Lighting is not good enough. We are lucky there have not been serious fatalities. We are getting delays on both sides, the ESB is particularly busy too," Cllr John King claimed.

Cllr Ben Brennan said he has been asking since May 2022 for a new light to be turned on, but the ESB hasn't connected it. He also claims that a streetlight was removed that he paid €1,000 towards, because "it couldn't go on that pole", but he didn't get a refund for his discretionary spend.

Cllr Paddy Bracken suggests that money come from the Active Travel fund, which exists to get people travelling on foot or bike.

Director of Services for roads and lighting is Simon Walton.

"We have assigned staff to improve the situation. There has been some progress, we have a contract with a service provider. We have an option to retender later this year and we are considering that, but nationally there are only three or four contractors. I'm not saying 'better the devil you know' but we are working and I think we are making progress," he said.

There are now 9,319 streetlights in Laois, and over two thirds are now the SOX or SON type of LED light, which casts a white light directly down to the ground, and use less electricity.

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The council began retrofitting its streetlights in 2019 and in 2023 they did another 600, bringing the total so far to 6,203, or 67.4%. 

"This has given rise to energy savings of 150,000 kilowatt hours, or €85,000 per annum based on average energy costs. In the same period an additional 924 public lights have been added," Laois County Council reports.