Damaged Cork street lights blamed on delivery drivers

CARELESS delivery drivers have been blamed for the extensive damage being caused to a groundbreaking €422,000 lighting scheme on one of Cork’s busiest shopping streets.

At the moment, just a handful of Oliver Plunkett Street’s 123 multicoloured illuminated bollards are in working order.

Installed as part of the street’s €3.8 million Beth Gali-designed revamp that began in 2004, the lighting scheme represented the first time such a system was used in a public infrastructure project.

Cork city manager Tim Lucey said the council does not have any more spares and is being forced to replace the damaged bollards with plastic pipes.

Reacting to concerns raised by Fine Gael Cllr Laura McGonigle at a council meeting on Monday night, Mr Lucey reported how engineers were examining fresh ways to minimise the damage caused to the €422,000 lighting system.

“The need to replace damaged bollards far exceeded expectations and currently damaged bollards are replaced by ordinary pipes as there are no spare bollards available.

“The damage to the bollards is caused by delivery vans in the main being driven carelessly.

“This type of damage is not covered by warranty/guarantee.”

It also emerged that the labour cost of taking out a damaged bollard and replacing it was €350.

Mr Lucey said that different options were now being examined to “minimise the damage caused by careless driving and to get the bollards illuminated as envisaged on a continuous basis”.