Thomas Gould TD.

TD: Traffic light repairs need review

A Cork city TD has expressed major concern regarding the frequency and duration of traffic light outages in Cork city.

Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould said figures released to him by Freedom of Information (FOI) Ireland showed 1 traffic light at the Lancaster Quay and Mardyke Street junction was out of service of 93 days in a row last year.

The figures also showed 5 locations in the city experienced more than 10 faults in 2022, with a city-wide outage total of 745. The average repair time was 2.93 days, however, 63 outages took longer than 7 days to resolve.

Deputy Gould is now calling on Cork City Council to log all traffic light systems and their parts and to put a plan in place to replace faulty traffic light systems as quickly as possible. “Keeping on top of the lifespan of these parts and making sure sufficient replacements are in stock could dramatically reduce the wait times and make things much easier for those working on the ground,” he said.

He added: “The reason that I’m hearing they can’t get parts is because a lot of the traffic light systems are so old that the parts are now difficult to source.” Deputy Gould also said that while some faults may be minor in nature, it is important to acknowledge the vital role traffic lights play in keeping people safe in the city.

“No fault should take over 3 months to repair. That is a really shocking statistic and that 9% took over 7 days to resolve highlights that these situations are taking too long to fix. Anecdotally, I have heard of a number of road traffic accidents this year because of traffic lights faults and the statistics provide evidence to show that this is a big problem in the city,” he said.

Sinn Féin Cllr for Cork City North West Kenneth Collins added: “If there are issues with resourcing or sourcing parts, Cork City Council need to make this very clear so that we can work with Thomas to seek additional funding. Monitoring the parts and knowing when they’re coming to the end of their lifespan will ensure that no faults will be left while they wait for parts to be delivered.”