Meeting sought with new infrastructure minister to discuss street lighting

Meeting sought with new infrastructure minister to discuss street lighting

5 February 2020

A LOCAL politician is seeking a meeting with new Stormont infrastructure minister Nichola Mallon to discuss the huge number of street lights across the district which are not working.

The Recorder revealed last month that almost 550 street lights were currently out of order in East Down, plunging many areas into darkness.

The Department for Infrastructure — which is responsible for street lighting — confirmed that due to budgetary pressures, it is only able to provide a limited repair service.

Province-wide, 10,000 street lights are currently not working with the government department having only eight engineers at its disposal to repair all of them.

Downpatrick tops the league table for broken street lights in East Down with 132 in need of repair, with Newcastle sitting in second place. Across the resort, 83 street lights are not working.

Other district hot-spots include Ballynahinch where 47 street lights are currently out of order, with

40 faults reported in Killyleagh and 34  brought to the government department’s attention in Castlewellan and Crossgar. In Saintfield, 27 faults have been reported.

Elsewhere, 32 street lights are currently out of order in Ballygowan, with 21 and 19 faults reported in Ardglass and Killough respectively.

Sixteen street lights are out of order in Dundrum with 11 faults reported in Drumaness. The figures for the Spa and Clough are 11 and nine respectively.

Downpatrick area councillor, Dermot Curran, who hopes to meet with Ms Mallon to discuss the issue, said investment must be found to address the street lighting debacle.

He said that repairs are generally limited to those that can be carried out by the government department’s internal street lighting workforce which only consists of five full and three part time electricians.

Cllr Curran described the number of street lights not working across East Down and Lecale as “alarming” and hopes that the money to expedite much-needed repairs will be earmarked by the new Stormont Executive.

“Faulty street lights represent a health and safety issue for drivers and pedestrians and there is not one area in the district which is not affected,” he continued.

“While the new infrastructure minister will be inundated with requests for meetings and investment in key projects, repairing faulty street lights has to be a priority. The fact that in the local area there are 550 broken lights beggars belief. I have no doubt that the number will increase before the government department can begin to get to grips with this issue.”

Cllr Curran said street lights which are not working in areas where elderly people and indeed young families live poses a major problem. 

He said a fully working street lighting system provides residents with a sense of security and helps deter would-be criminals.

“I recognise that the new minister will have an overflowing intray and will have to work with her officials to determine the priorities in the months ahead. It is my contention that repairing faulty street lights must be one of those priorities,” said Cllr Curran.

“The new minister’s department faces budgetary challenges, but the resources required to deliver  a full street lighting repair service must be made available.”