Portlaoise Road so dangerous kids can't walk or cycle to school, meeting told
Parents are driving their children a half a mile to school rather than letting them walk on an “absolutely treacherous” road in Portlaoise, a meeting was told.
Fianna Fail Cllr, Catherine Fitzgerald said neither adult or child could walk on the Meelick Road in Portlaoise safely yet thousands of children are going to school nearby.
“At the moment you would actually be terrified to put your foot on the Meelick Road. We are getting traffic calming in the next few weeks,” she revealed.
“The more I look at that road and it’s so near the main schools, it is one area that we have to look at,” said Cllr Fitzgerald.
“There’s no footpath there anywhere. We have three or four schools within half a mile of the Meelick Road and we are going to have another school with over 1,000 pupils. You go out by the cattle mart and out to the Meelick Road and parents and grandparents have told me, not one person in that area can send a child or bring a child to school. The parents can’t walk, it is too dangerous,” she continued.
She said children who live within a half a mile and should be able to walk or cycle are being brought to school by car for their own safety.
“You cannot walk the road,” she said, describing it as absolutely treacherous.
“We have thousands of school going children going out there in the next year, we already have about a thousand and a half in primary school. We are going to add another thousand and not a sign of a path on the road,” said Cllr Fitzgerald.
She said she had walked the road recently with Cllr Willie Aird and although she already knew it wasn’t safe, she was shocked by how dangerous it was.
Cllr Fitzgerald was thankful that road signs were being introduced in an effort to slow traffic.
“A serious case has to be made to the Department. We can’t wait until the school is going to be built. Imagine, not even a half a mile from the school, no-one can walk to school. No way would you put an adult or a child on that road, so it is a serious issue and we are going to have to put a strong case to the Minister and maybe work with Active Travel,” she said.
“Try and walk the road,” she suggested.
“We all had yellow jackets and we were in the ditch most of the time. That’s without two lorries meeting,” said Cllr Fitzgerald.
“One of the neighbours said to me there’s teenage boys and they go to the match and they go through the field at the back… they literally walk through the field because they can’t go on the road,” she added.
Fine Gael Cllr Willie Aird said the Laois Offaly Education and Training Board were racing ahead to get a new school for around 1,000 students and it is important that the council act to get a new road from the Stradbally Road across to the Dublin Road.