County Derry primary school 'did not meet criteria' for 20mph limit

A local representative has hit out at the Department for Infrastructure after a County Derry primary school was again denied a 20mph speed limit on the adjacent road.

St Columba's PS, Ballerin, did not meet the score required to benefit from the speed limit during the first phase of the scheme, and have now been told they 'did not meet the criteria' for the second.

East Derry election candidate for Aontú, Gemma Brolly, said the school had been 'assured' they would be considered for the second phase.

“The community here in Ballerin politely and patiently awaited the details of the second tranche, whilst the safety of their families remained at risk,” she said.

“There is now huge concern in the area that the safety of our children wrongly relies on a scoring system, and not on the consideration of the physical location and dangers.

“It must be noted, that a substantial number of the schools that avail of part-time 20mph speed limits are located within 30mph zones.

“Of these schools, a large number are considerably further from the ‘main’ road than St. Columba’s Primary School Ballerin, which is right beside a main road carrying the national speed limit.

“While I am delighted to see other schools gain an increased standard of safety, we feel we have now reached crisis point.”

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The school also lost their dedicated patrol crossing officer following his retirement in September 2020 before being turned down for the 20mph zone.

Ms Brolly said she had written to Minister for Infrastructure Nichola Mallon to ask her to address the issues as 'a matter of urgency'.

“We will not stop until we have secured the highest standard of safety possible for all our school children,” she said.

“The situation at St. Columba’s Primary School is another example of paperwork over common sense in what could be a life or death situation. This simply is not good enough.

“I will continue to push forward to secure an equal, high standard of safety for all our children. Nothing less will do.

“I personally believe each and every school should have 20mph speed limits and I will do all I can to help make this happen,” she added.

A Department of Infrastructure spokesperson said St Columba's had not scored highly enough to benefit from 'Phase 2' of the programme.

“The Department can confirm St Columba’s was assessed for Phase 2 but did not rank as highly as a number of other schools in the area that were included in the 2021-22 programme,” they said.

“However the school will be reassessed for Phase 3 and selected in order of merit based on other schools and competing factors.”

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The Education Authority have published their latest round of Area Planning consultation.