Lights Airtricity

Green Party Councillor Lourda Scott calls for better monitoring of streetlamp repair in the District. Scott says “During this winter many people have contacted me about street lights which are not being repaired in a timely fashion; in fact some have been reported faulty for sixty days and more. This has left vulnerable people, such as the elderly, women and the disabled feeling unsafe as they navigate their community in darkness. It is clear that this has been an on going issue for many years as the topic is raised regularly during Wicklow County Council (WCC) meetings. This month we met with representatives of SSE Airtricity Utility Solutions, who are contracted by WCC to maintain street lights throughout the County. We were told that 17% of the County’s public lights were faulty, with 39 faults currently reported in the Greystones District. They confirmed that the agreed timeframe in which repair should take place is 10 days but that this can be escalated to 28 days, depending on the cause. I consider this to be a key performance indicator for this contracted service. However there was no analysis of how many faults are actually fixed within these time frames, making it impossible to assess the quality of service being provided by Airtricity. This is the very least that we should expect from a contracted operator.”

Scott concludes: “I have asked that SSE Airtricity provide Wicklow County Council with an analysis of the turnaround times of repair over the last 12 months. I encourage everyone who ahs reported a street lamp fault and isn’t repaired within 10 days to log a complaint through www.airtricitysolutions.com.”

Note faults can be reported through www.fixmystreet.ie www.airtricitysolutions.com or directly to Wicklow County Council.