AN ESB spokesman has confirmed that damage caused by "third parties" was responsible for public lights not working in the Twin Towns.

The matter was raised recently by local councillor, JJ Reid, in relation to broken street lights at Navenny in Ballybofey and Mill Brae in Stranorlar. Cllr Reid had complained that the ESB were not providing a satisfactory service to Donegal County Council.

However, an ESB spokesman said that the lights were damaged by third parties in both instances.

The six lights in Stranorlar were damaged when a digger operating nearby struck an underground cable. The spokesman said that three lights were repaired as a temporary measure until such a time that the fault is located.

HIGH VEHICLE

Meanwhile, the spokesman explained that a high vehicle load knocked down an overhead line at Navenny three times since Christmas which in turn switched off the lights. However, the ESB were to carry out temporary repairs on Wednesday.

"We will have to increase the height of line, but in meantime, the lights will be left on 24 hours a day in the interest of public safety until the problem is resolved ," the spokesman said.

Cllr Reid called on members of the public to report all public lighting faults immediately to the ESB and that he would follow up on their reports.

The council spent almost 2.5 million euro lighting up the county by the end of last year.

According to a council engineer, running costs for the 9,500 public lights in Donegal were more than 900,000 euro for 2006. The running costs, which include maintenance and energy costs, were 720,000 euro for 2004 and increased to 840,000 euro last year. These costs are expected to increase "quite significantly" in the coming years. The figures exclude the three urban council areas of Letterkenny, Buncrana and Bundoran.