Street lighting in Cootehill 'a cause for concern'

A Cootehill woman has raised concerns about inadequate street lighting in the town.

Pearlena McCaffrey is an avid walker and frequently hits the footpaths with her two dogs. However she is frustrated by the lighting, which she blames for having recently contributed to an elderly woman having “a very bad fall” on the New Line Road.

“She couldn’t see a thing in the dark,” Pearlena said. “You just cannot see anything and it’s so dangerous. I often have met people and you know people are coming towards you but you can’t make out their faces.

“It’s just a bit unnerving,” added Pearlena.

“I find it very awkward and I wouldn’t have good balance sometimes, I find it difficult to walk around when it is so dark.”

She began a petition last year to get more street lighting for the town, which has garnered around 300 signatures both in person and online to date.

While some bulbs have been changed, Pearlena is still not satisfied with the quality of street lighting in the town. That coupled with dark evenings is causing fear for some, tripled with uneven surfacing, Pearlena fears that more people will be injured while out walking.

“I just felt that if I did something and tried the petition, maybe the council would do something about it.”

She said “some of the streets you walk through to get to other areas are just pitch black”.

“No light at all,” she said, describing the situation as “very dangerous”.

She outlined how the area from the national school to the New Line Road is “dark for probably about 30 metres”. Meanwhile the area named The Sabbeth and the road leading from Bridge Street down to Fair Green, beside the former Ivy Bar are also “pitch black”, which makes walking at night time “really terrible”.

“There’s no footpath on The Sabbeth and the one beside the [former] Ivy Bar, that area is just overgrown, it’s not surfaced well and you can’t really walk on it.”

As well as areas being in darkness, there were also 18 lights not working in the town, which Pearlena reported to the council via the website. Just days later, she was delighted to see the bulbs were being replaced.

“Cootehill is a great town, we have a lot of hills and lots of circles and lots of roads and you can do a couple of miles around the town no problem, it’s just the darkness in some of the areas is very bad.”

She also said “a number of people” told her the lighting leading out to Erica’s Fairy Forest is “terrible”.

“People get a wee bit down [in the winter] and it’s good to get a bit of air and be able to walk around in a bit of comfort.”

In response, a spokesperson from Cavan County Council said the council is aware of the street lighting issue.

“Representations have been made from elected representatives and members of the public requesting additional lighting in a number of locations within the town,” the spokesperson confirmed.

Regarding the installation of additional street lighting in the town, they spokesperson said: “The Municipal District receives a limited amount of public lighting funding each year from own resources. The above area has been identified as requiring additional lighting and it is the council’s intention to carry out works here if available funding permits.”

The spokesperson continued that there are “no current plans” to carry out works on the walking areas near The Sabbeth and beside the [former] Ivy Bar.

In response to complaints about street lights on the pedestrian crossing on Bridge Street not working, the council committed to “investigate and log the defect if required”.