Discussion on Christmas lights

The contractor who installed the Christmas lights in Kilcullen for the last festival is to bring forward soon proposals for next year.

The matter was raised at tonight's Kilcullen Community Action meeting, where Ray Kelly noted that there had been a number of 'issues' about the lights.

These included bulbs which had blown, were broken, or disappeared, in some of the sections strung through the town.

"At one stage I counted more than a hundred which weren't working," he said.

In response to a comment that some of the 'strings' seemed uneven, he reported the contractor's comment that there were certain areas where he 'couldn't put brackets'.

Celia Travers suggested that when businesses saw uneven lighting, they might be 'less inclined' to give money next year.

There was also a discussion about the merits of light 'strings' as opposed to 'profiles'. Ray Kelly noted that the profiles required bigger brackets, and that as some of the buildings were old, it might not be possible to get a suitable grip for such brackets.

J J Warren suggested that a survey of the town be done soon to establish which buildings might be able to take the brackets. Noel Clare said some businesses had expressed an interest in buying their own profiles and linking them into the town system.

Ray Kelly also told the meeting that he had received three separate estimated bills for electricity consumption by the lights, each for €230.

Brian Byrne.