Street lights finally being turned on in Athlone estate after lengthy blackout

A large Athlone housing estate which had been in darkness for months, due to a delay with the switching on of its new LED street lighting, is finally seeing the lights go on this week.

The old public lights in the Auburn Heights estate were replaced by Westmeath County Council with energy-efficient LED bulbs in September.

However, there was a problem with getting the power to the new lights switched on by the ESB.

This meant that, as the nights grew longer in recent months, there was no street lighting at all in the Auburn Heights estate. It's understood that this blackout came to an end late last night (Tuesday) when the new lights were finally illuminated for the first time.

A spokesperson for the ESB confirmed to the Westmeath Independent that, "following close cooperation with Westmeath County Council to correct an issue delaying the final connection of street lights in Auburn Heights in Athlone, all street lights will be connected by ESB Networks today (Wednesday)."

Athlone councillor, Aengus O'Rourke, who had been working to speed up the process of connecting the lights, said he was "relieved" this had now been done.

"I'm pleased for the people of Auburn Heights that, at long last, they have their estate's lighting energised. It's a large residential estate and I've had many, many calls from people concerned about the lack of lighting there since September.

"The council has invested considerable money in upgrading the poles and the LED lightheads, and it seems that the ESB finally got the lights in operation on Tuesday night."

He added that the lights at a pedestrian crossing outside the Ericsson premises in Cornamaddy, Athlone, were also being switched on this week.