Estate residents left without public lighting

FOR THE angry residents of the most unusually named housing estate in all of Cork their New Year wish - literally - must be that there will be light at the end of the tunnel.

Eight months have elapsed since the keys of the Sruthain Na Sailí estate on the outskirts of Youghal were handed over to the residents.

Now, as then, the entire area has been left without public lighting.

Sisters Trish and Aisling McGrath said: “We are living in a world of darkness, a black hole that is no joke at this time of year.”

According to the residents the blame game is in full swing with the infamous buck being passed from one source to another.

“In truth we just don’t know who is at fault,” said Trish McGrath.

“It is between the builder, Cork County Council, and the ESB, but the ESB have told us they cannot come into the estate to provide the public lighting until it has been legally signed over. We just don’t know where we stand.”

The steel standards have been in place since May.

Ornamentally aesthetic they may be, but that’s of little use to the householders who cannot leave their children outside the front doors once darkness falls.

Aisling McGrath said the area is plunged into darkness once evening arrives.

“It is so bad that you can’t even see the keyhole in the door,” she said.

“It is far too dangerous to leave the children out playing after 4 o’clock.

While the absence of public lighting is top of the residents’ complaints list, it is not their only grievance. There is little or no provision for car parking, and the narrowness of the road through the estate means people have to drive onto the private frontage of houses to turn their cars.

The green area fronting the houses is little more than an unsightly mound, and according to the residents it was a morass of weeds until it was given a recent clean up.

Youghal town councillor Sandra McLellan has been taking the matter up in recent months but without success.

“The failure to provide public lighting after eight months is particularly scandalous, and wherever the fault lies it is something that needs to be rectified without another day’s delay,” she said.

Cllr McLellan said she is determined to continue to highlight the situation at Sruthain Na Sailí until matters have been attended to.

“Perhaps someone in authority will do the needful next week and end the many months of misery the householders have had to endure,” she added.