Laois town left in darkness with no lights on busy road

A busy road in a Laois town continues to remain shrouded in darkness due to a lack of public lighting.

The R425 in Ballyroan travels from the local service station to the soccer pitch, and has one streetlamp on this 200 metre stretch.

Laois Councillor Caroline Dwane Stanley has requested that the Council install public lighting along this route.

Mr. Conor Delaney, Executive Engineer in Laois County Council's public lighting section, replied that a GPS survey will take place.

"A GPS survey will be carried out initially in order to prepare a Lighting Design," said Mr Delaney.

"Projected costings for the proposed public lights will then be sought," he finished.

Cllr Dwane Stanley thanked Mr Delaney for his reply, and explained that many Ballyroan residents have contacted her regarding this issue.

Pictured: The R425 road in Ballyroan, between the local Inver filling station and the Soccer pitch

"Anyone who is familiar with Ballyroan knows that from the service station, right out to the soccer club and beyond the community centre, there is not one public light on that road," Cllr Dwane Stanley highlighted.

"I don't have an issue with putting up that light out of my discretionary funding for anyone, but when you go out that road you need maybe five or six lights, maybe more. Discretionary funding is not going to resolve that," she said.

The Councillor also addressed current speeding issues on that road, with cars often reaching in excess of 100kmph.

"There's a footpath going out that road, it's a wide road," the Independent Councillor explained.

"There are also issues there with speeding. Right from the pedestrian crossing out. So I would ask firstly, that the public lights be looked at. I don't mind making some contribution out of my discretionary fund, but there should be some sort of a project there put in place to light up that whole way," she said.

"Once there is a footpath going out, there should be public lighting. i would also ask that you consider traffic calming measures and put something in place to slow down the traffic. You take your life in your hands on that road at the moment," Cllr Dwane Stanley finished.

This motion was seconded by Ballyroan native and Fine Gael Cllr Barry Walsh.

"I fully support this motion, I have requested this before," said Cllr Walsh.

"This is 200 metres of a stretch from the shop up to the soccer pitch. we have had significant work from the school to the GAA pitch, carried out under an Active Travel Grant two years ago," he said.

"The issue is, active travel at that time was allowing for rural areas, and that has changed. It is now only applicable to urban areas. I was hoping to try get that route and several more seen to, and hopefully the new Government will change this issue," Cllr Walsh said. 

Cllr Walsh also explained that due to the narrowness of the footpath, there is nowhere to place streetlights without obstructing the footpath.

"The path is quite tight there, there is nowhere to put lights because of an underground cable, meaning the paths would have to come up," he explained.

"There is one light on the opposite side of the road, I put it in under my own discretionary funding. It took me a long time to get that up there, so if anyone wants to help on this issue it would be appreciated, as my discretionary funding would not be enough," Cllr Walsh said.

The Councillor has previously requested an overall lighting survey for Ballyroan along with a traffic survey.

"The traffic survey has shown that there are cars coming in at significant speeds into Ballyroan," he said.

"My plan is to have a conversation with what residents want. Some people don't want ramps and have other suggestions, and the plan should be in agreement with the whole community," Cllr Walsh said.

"I regularly get videos of people showing cars going over 100km an hour into the town. There are different obstacles and costs related to sorting this issue, but I am hopeful that there is a provisional where rural villages can be included in the scheme, and we can get this issue across the line," he finished.

This motion was tabled at the January sitting of Laois County Council's Portlaoise Municipal District.