Ongoing vandalism at traffic lights

A northside councillor has called for a five month wait to fix traffic lights to be shortened amid a guide dog “getting confused”.

Councillor Kenneth Collins was speaking during Monday’s Cork City Council meeting as he asked for an update on the repair of the traffic lights on Popham’s Road and Farranferris Avenue.

The Sinn Féin Councillor was told by senior management in City Hall that the traffic lights at the junction of Farranferris Avenue and Popham’s Road have been the subject of vandalism. Following the most recent incident, it required very significant repair and replacement works to be carried out.

David Joyce, Director of Services, Roads and Environment Directorate, said: “Replacement parts were ordered and were delayed due to ongoing international supply chain issues.”

The contractor has been mobilised on site, as well as two other local sites, for repair replacement works. The recent adverse weather has required them to demobilise.

On Monday Mr Joyce said that it was hoped that the installation would be completed by yesterday, Wednesday.

However, Cllr Collins replied: “It took five months for these to be repaired. There was a lady, who is visually impaired, who fell out on to the road. The guide dog brought her out and got confused. I don’t know what happened but the dog stumbled back.”

He asked if it’s taking five months to get traffic lights fixed across the city.

Mr Joyce told Cllr Collins: “The issue those three set of lights, particularly the one you’re referring to, is ongoing vandalism. There is significant damage being done regularly to those lights and it’s costing a lot of money to repair them.”

Mr Joyce said it cost €50,000 to repair what was wrong with the three sets of lights which he described as “a significant amount of money”.

He added: “This money had to be taken out of our budget and it could have been spent in other locations that aren’t being vandalised. We had to take money from other locations to try to fund this.”

He also added that the five month wait was because three sets of lights had to be repaired at the one time and it took that amount of time to get the parts in to fix them again citing ongoing international supply chain issues.