Laois town's massgoers left in the dark over broken streetlights

Catholic parishioners in Laois going to Portlaoise morning Mass during Lent were left in "total darkness" due to unfixed public streetlights according to a local councillor.

"The mind boggles" says Cllr Willie Aird, calling it the "longest running saga of lights out" in the town.

People walking across pedestrian crossings were in danger he added, due to the lengthy time that many streetlights were left out of order on the Dublin road. 

He tabled a motion to the April meeting of Portlaoise Municipal District, asking Laois County Council to engage with the ESB to "resolve the serious issue of faulty lighting on the Dublin road adjacent to the church".

"This is not a problem for Laois County Council but we have never got as many calls. All during lent for 7.30am Mass it was in total darkness. There are four pedestrian crossings and only for those lights, its not sufficient for motorists to see the pedestrian crossings. 

"They are still out. The mind boggles. This is the longest running saga of lights out I ever saw in Portlaoise. I don't see any ESB vans there yet. People are losing patience," Cllr Aird said.

Director of Services is Simon Walton.

"It's not faulty bulbs, there is a fault in the ESB supply to the light. It falls to the ESB," he said.

Cllr Caroline Dwane Stanley described an incident involving Gardaí on the Ridge graveyard that showed how dark it was.

"I saw a couple of Garda vans at the burial ridge to take some young people down. All you could see was their torches it was so dark. The lights are gone quite a long time," she said.

WEATHER WARNING: Laois in Met Éireann thunderstorm weather alert

"Jessop Street is the same, there is not a screed of a light there for six weeks. It's black dark on the corner to Church Street," she said.

In reply to the motion, the area engineer said that the ESB have been notified of an electricity supply fault, and the council have asked them to speed up its repair.