Local Authorities in the South East Region are set to generate savings of over €2m over the next three years following the award of a new public lighting maintenance services contract to Airtricity Utility Solutions Ltd.

Waterford County Council, acting as lead authority on behalf of Waterford City, Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary, and Wexford County Councils and their associated Town Council's, awarded the three year fixed price contract for €3.6m to Airtricity Utility Solutions earlier this year following a tender process under EU rules.

The performance based contract, which is the first of its kind in Ireland, covers just over 47,000 lights on public roads and housing estates in villages, towns and cities throughout the South East. Under the contract Airtricity Utility Solutions, which is Ireland's largest street lighting contractor, is required to keep all lights in good working order and performance is measured through regular audits against criteria set out in the contract.

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A key feature of the new contract is public involvement in fault identification and reporting. Airtricity Utility Solution's dedicated online 'Report a Fault' tool on the company's website www.airtricitysolutions.com makes it simpler for members of the public across the South East to report a faulty street light from the comfort of their home, any time of the day or night, 365 days a year. A link to the site is also available on the participating Councils' websites. Anyone reporting a public lighting fault online can easily identify the street address of a faulty light from a series of dropdown menus. In addition, progress on reported faults can be tracked via the website using the unique fault reference number emailed to the person who submitted the report. Members of the public can also report a faulty street light using a dedicated freephone number 1800 372 772 which is operated 24 hours a day.

Mayor of County Waterford, Cllr. Billy Kyne welcomed the award of the new contract and stated that "the fixed price contract gives Waterford County Council and the other participating Councils certainty of cost for the next three years". He also urged the public to report faulty lights immediately using either the online facility or the freephone number. "Don't leave reporting faulty lights to someone else", he said, "the sooner it's reported the sooner it will be fixed".

Waterford County Council and Dungarvan Town Council are responsible for 6,092 public lights. Under the newly-agreed terms the cost of maintaining these lights has reduced by 53% per annum over the lifetime of the new contract.

(CD)