Pedestrian crossing lights still out at Portlaoise College says local councillor

A PORTLAOISE councillor again complained about broken pedestrian crossing traffic lights at Portlaoise College when local councillors met for their March meeting.

At last month’s municipal district council meeting cllr Caroline Dwane Stanley asked when would the on-going issue with the light be address? 

She was informed then, by the council’s senior executive engineer Wes Wilkinson that due to recurring technical issues a new component would be needed to resolve the problem.

However, a month on and cllr Dwane Stanley said the lights were still out.

She said: “I was driving past the college and noticed a lot of roadworks going on for the installation of bus stops. What I saw happening was students coming out of the school going halfway across the road and in between traffic. Because the traffic was chockablock there’s no safe crossing there for them. They’re dodging the traffic and going out and in between the traffic. I just want to know when will the lights be repaired?” 

“I don’t have a date (for when the lights will be repaired)”, said the director of services Simon Walton.

 “I know there’s controller issues. It’s a bad situation and I know that the lights have been out for a considerable period of time. There’s two or three of these controllers that we are waiting on for across the county.” 

He assured councillors that he would contact them to give them an update on the repair of the pedestrian crossing lights.