COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

south dublin county council crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, February 11, 2013

QUESTION NO. 13

QUESTION: Councillor W. Lavelle

To ask the Manager for a report on recent unsatisfactory delays in responding to public lighting repair requests?

REPLY:

SDCC has a regular scouting routine ensuring that all lights in the charge of the council are patrolled once every fortnight. Eight patrol areas are surveyed during the hours of darkness over eight working days. The faults are remotely uploaded onto our asset management system are available for viewing by council staff by start of business the following morning. Reports are also taken in by administrative staff from customers. All standard faults are repaired within 14 days. However some faults such as cable faults, intermittent faults or ‘no supply’ are not always immediately repairable and may require repeat visits to rectify.  In the case of a ‘no supply fault’ reported, the ESB is notified and we are then dependant on their work crew schedules for repair.

Occasionally faults reported by customer are somewhat inaccurate and can lead to the wrong pole logged as a fault.  In this case the customer is contacted wherever possible and further information regarding pole number and address is requested.  This is not always possible as many reports are without contact details.  Where this occurs the customer can perceive delays in service.

During operation free flow  in December, some individual pole faults on main roads, which usually require major traffic management, were postponed.  These repairs have resumed in January but we have experienced some recent delays due to the very high winds preventing the use of the high boom truck required to maintain 10-12m lighting columns.

In the previous two months 1,231 faults have been logged through regular fortnightly scouts and customer reporting. 1,184 have been fully completed in a timely manner.  The outstanding 47, the majority of which are on main roads and are currently priorities for repair as the weather allows.