COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF RATHFARNHAM/TEMPLEOGUE/FIRHOUSE/BOHERNABREENA AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, February 09, 2021

QUESTION NO. 11

QUESTION: Councillor Yvonne Collins

That the Chief Executive would consider removing lamp post number 2 in Church Lane in Rathfarnham as it is choked with ivy and is inoperative and has been so for some time, and to replace it with a more traditional style of lamp post, like those in Rathfarnham village. At present, the lighting in the laneway is very poor and residents can be uneasy traversing the laneway after dark on their own.

REPLY:

The existing PL on Church Lane in on the ESBN overhead network. Due to the width of the lane, there is not enough room to install a PL column such as those on Main St without significant risk of damage to the column. In addition, the cost to install it and provide an underground supply at this location would be excessive.

We accept the fact that there have been ongoing problems with the maintenance of this PL fitting. We have been in correspondence with ESBN since March 2020 on the matter. There was no supply to the fitting in early 2020 due to the ivy growth and we requested from ESBN that this be remedied. The delay in ESBN carrying out this work was put down to the first COVID lockdown and when restrictions were lifted during the summer, they informed us that the work we had requested had been done. However, on a maintenance visit to the pole to upgrade to LED , we found that the reconnection had not, in fact, been made.

We have upgraded the other fittings on Church Lane to LED and wish to do the same with P2, but the lack of connection has prevented this. We have now scheduled a site visit for Saturday next 6th February, to access the pole with a cherry picker, assuming that the parking of cars along the lane will allow us to do this. We intend to cut back the ivy and investigate fully the situation with the ESBN supply. Following on from that, we will upgrade the fitting to LED. Once this is complete, and if we have found that the connection is still not live, we will again revert to ESBN and appraise them of the situation, requesting urgently that they reconnect the fitting.