Mayor says safety project at Tipperary school must be delivered quickly once plan approved

Tipperary County Council is designing a road safety scheme outside Clonmel's Loreto Secondary School to alleviate traffic congestion and improve safety for students and expects to have the design ready this year for submission for planning approval.

Mayor of Clonmel Cllr Pat English welcomes the project but stressed it’s essential that it’s delivered as quickly as possible by the local authority due to the serious traffic management problem in the Coleville Road area, particularly at school start and finish times.

The Council says the Safe Routes to School Scheme proposed outside the Loreto will support students to walk and cycle to school through improved safety at the school gate by providing what it described as “front of school” measures to alleviate congestion and improve access to the school.

Kieran McKenna, Senior Executive Engineer with the Council’s Active Travel Section, said the project will also improve access routes to the school by improving facilities to cater for the main pedestrian lines to facilitate walking to school.

“The project is currently at preliminary design stage and includes signage, a number of controlled Zebra crossings, a bus set-down area, bollards and associated road markings for the scheme.”

Mr McKenna said the Council has secured €5,000 funding to complete the Safe Routes to School Scheme design and expects to have the design ready this year to progress to submitting a Part 8 planning application for approval.

He explained the design will have to be approved first by the National Transport Authority before the Council can submit the planning application.

“The final project costs have yet to be finalised and will be subject to agreeing the final design layout with the NTA as the funding authority.

Subject to planning and funding approval, the Council will carry out a detailed design of the scheme, then tender for a contractor and proceed to construction.

Mr McKenna said funding is provided on an annual basis as the scheme progresses through the various stages. “The overall process can take a number of years to complete,” he pointed out.

A parent who contacted The Nationalist concerned about what she described as as the “chaotic” situation outside the Loreto at school start and finish times and the safety risks to students, has welcomed the proposed Safe Routes to School Scheme.

And like the Mayor, she hopes the project is delivered as quickly as possible. She said measures like pedestrian crossings policed by a lollipop warden, beacon light signs warning motorists of crossing students and speed ramps are needed at this location.

Cllr English said once planning approval is secured for this road safety project Clonmel Borough District councillors must lobby the constituency’s TDs and Senators to get funding sanctioned quickly for this Safe Routes to School project.

“It’s essential this project is delivered as soon as possible in the short term rather than the long term due to the serious traffic management problem in the area, particularly at school times and because of the volume of traffic travelling on that road.”

The Mayor said that road has become an unofficial inner relief route in Clonmel with many motorists using it to get to the other side of town rather than using the N24 Frank Drohan Inner Relief Road which is often chock-a-bloc with traffic.

He has received representations from parents of students attending Loreto and residents in the Coleville Road area about the need to introduce more speed prevention measures.

Cllr English acknowledged the €300,000 Coleville Road Active Travel Scheme that finished in 2022 improved road safety a bit on the road but speeding by motorists is still a problem.

This project included reducing the carriageway widths and construction of a mini-roundabout at Coleville Avenue to reduce speed, wider footpaths to improve pedestrian safety, a 2m wide footpath on the south side of the carriageway east of Hotel Minella to give residents better visibility to to exit their homes and new road markings and signage.

Cllr English, his predecessor as Mayor, Michael Murphy TD and Cllr Siobhán Ambrose have all called at Clonmel Borough District meetings, since the Coleville Rd. Active Travel Scheme finished, for ramps or cushions to be installed on the road to reduce the speed of traffic.

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