So many street lights out or so dim in Cork town, 'you’d need a cigarette lighter to find way around'

So many lights are out in one tourist town that you’d need a cigarette lighter to find you way around, according to the Mayor of County Cork.

Meanwhile, in another tourist town several of its ornamental lights aren’t working, and there’s fears that somebody will be electrocuted if vandals keep tampering with an exposed electricity cable.

A meeting of the East Cork municipal district council, Mayor of County Cork Independent councillor Mary Linehan-Foley complained about the lights being out or so dim in parts of Youghal “you may as well have a cigarette lighter in your hand” to see where you’re going. She said it’s especially dangerous around Moll Goggin’s Corner and added that it’s also an issue in an estate in the town where there are a lot of elderly residents “and the lights are gone for months”.

Fianna Fáil councillor Ann Marie Ahern complained about “blacked out areas” of Midleton, specifically on Main Street and on Mill Road, which leads to and from the railway station.

Both councillors won support from colleagues to write to the ESB and the council’s lighting contractors Electric Skyline asking them to send representatives to a meeting of the municipal district council to explain why there are so many issues in the East Cork area.

'Beggars belief'

Social Democrats councillor Eamonn Horgan said the issues with lights “beggars belief”.

Senior executive engineer Dave Clarke acknowledged “there are plenty of issues out there” and public lighting is extremely important for safety.

“I hear your frustration,” he told councillors, and said he’d discuss their complaints with senior council management.

Meanwhile, at a municipal meeting in Cobh Labour councillor Cathal Rasmussen said many of that tourist town’s Victorian-style ornamental lights were out of action in that town.

He said some haven’t been working properly “for years” while others have a problem with timers as they stay on all day.

Mr Rasmussen, seconded by Independent councillor Ger Curley, asked officials to carry out a survey of all the public lights in the town, which they said they’d do.

He then turned his attention to dangerous acts of vandalism on an electric cable which could end up with somebody getting electrocuted. Mr Rasmussen said vandals are pulling an unprotected cable out of bushes on the town’s Burma Steps and it needs to be ducted underground.