Council urged to review road safety at County Roscommon school

Roscommon County Council has been urged to review road safety at Newtown National School in South Roscommon.

The call was made at a recent meeting of Athlone Municipal District by Independent Emer Kelly and Fianna Fáil’s John Keogh.

In a joint notice of motion tabled at the meeting, they called on the council to review the safety outside of the school and to identify what measures could be implemented to improve safety for road users and people.

The meeting heard that two main concerns raised were the speed of vehicles passing the school during drop offs and pickups, and the lack of parking outside the school.

The two councillors pointed out that “cars are abandoned on the road during drop off and collection times”.

Cllr Kelly welcomed the council’s engagement in putting up school warning signs. However, she did say there was still an issue with driver behaviour on the roads.

Pointing out that it was important to maximise what could be done in terms of safety, Cllr Kelly sought information on when the next round of the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programme would be opening. She said that many schools had benefitted from the scheme in the past.

Municipal District Co-ordinator Susan Loughnane pointed out that there was no date scheduled as to when the next round would open.

Cllr Keogh said that parents had raised concerns about speeding in the area and wondered if the speed limit could be placed on the road itself to help driver awareness.

“We know this is about garda enforcement but they can’t be there every day,” he said.

Regarding the lack of parking, Cllr Keogh explained that the difficulty for Newton school was that that it did not have the land to put in additional parking. He queried whether some of the grass verges could be removed and replaced with some hardcore to provide extra parking.

Fine Gael councillor Valerie Duffy hoped the school would be able to access the SRTS scheme and said that despite the reduction in speed limits, speed was still an issue for local schools.

Fine Gael councillor Domnick Connolly suggested that some of the bushes could be cut back at the school to improve visibility.

In relation to extra parking, he added that the council could perhaps help out if a portion of land was made available with the agreement of a local landowner.

Independent councillor Tony Ward said that safety at schools was very important and he was still looking to have the footpath extended and a pedestrian crossing installed at Curraghboy National School.

Ms Loughnane pointed out that there was no mechanism available to the council to help facilitate extra parking for schools. In a formal reply to Cllr Kelly’s and Cllr Keogh’s the notice of motion, the council said that several signs had been provided by Roscommon County Council at Newtown NS.

It said that there were flashing school warning signs in place on both approaches to the school. There is also a school warning sign and ‘school ahead’ road markings in place on the westbound approach from the R357.

The council said the current signage in place at the school was very visible from both approaches.

“Additional signage on the eastbound approach like that in place on the westbound approach can be provided to ensure maximum visibility on both approaches,” it said.

In its reply, the local authority said that the Safe Routes to School Programme aims to improve safety at school gates and increase active travel to schools.

“The Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Programme launched in March 2021 and all schools in Ireland were invited to apply to take part. Newtown NS did not apply at that time. While The SRTS Programme is not currently open for new schools to apply, where new schools are invited to apply in the future it is strongly recommended that Newtown National School take up the opportunity,” it said.

Regarding the provision of parking at schools, the council said this was a matter for the school board of management and/or the Department of Education.