Lights design to be revisited

Bad weather caused some problems with the Christmas lights during the festive season, the latest meeting of Kilcullen Community Action heard, writes Brian Byrne.

During a discussion on the issue, Noel Clare said that in some instances, water had disrupted some of the electrical connections, and they'd had to be attend to a number of times.

It was also decided to revisit the design of the lights used on the bridge, as it was felt they weren't quite bright enough against the ambient street lighting in the area.

The battery powered LED system was designed and built by KCA as an experiment in both saving power costs and eliminating vandalism to the electricity lines previously used. Noel Clare said they wouldn't go back to the old system, as what they had this time was much more preferable to the previous system, which required a great deal of 'minding'.

Among the suggestions was to introduce reflectors into the design, so as to effectively double the lighting output. Celia Travers said the design was really nice, that brightness was the only problem.

Kieran Forde said they would revisit the design in the light of this first experience with the LED system.

It was noted that the storage of the new lights is now much easier, as it no longer involved cables that were attractive to thieves. In the last two years, the cabling had been stolen from storage, representing a cost of around €1,000 each time.