Call for safety measures at major Letterkenny school

There have been calls for safety measures to be installed at Woodlands National School, Letterkenny as a matter of urgency.

Cathaoirleach of the Letterkenny-Milford Municipal District, Cllr Jimmy Kavanagh raised the issue at Tuesday's meeting of the body adding action was needed before something happened.

He said a number of issues were raised to him including the build-up of traffic due to the narrow nature of the road, mainly at school times in the morning and the afternoon.

This, he added, led to children walking on the road and a couple of near-misses.

"Cars are queueing along the Ramelton Road from 1.15pm even though the school gates don't open to 1.35pm. This leads to the blocking of non school traffic," he said.

In a written response the council said its roads section will continue to carry out a review of this location. An application for funding was submitted to the National Transport Authority (NTA) as part of the Safe Routes to School programme but no allocation was received.

"The roads team has liaised with local residents in this area and will continue to seek funding for any improvement works deemed necessary," it added.

Cllr Kavanagh urged the seek other funding from the NTA or investigate the possibility of money from the Active Travel Funds.

Cllr Ian McGarvey seconded the motion saying he had been on that particular road on Easter Tuesday and discovered that an accident had caused long delays and a major backup as far as the Polestar roundabout that day. He suggested the junction there was a hazard that needed to be looked at.

David McIlwaine from the council's area manager for roads and transportation section said Active Travel funding was limited to areas within the speed limits that ruled them out They had been looking at options to source funding including Safe Routes to School and Clar programmes as well as talking to their road safety engineers to see if any minor improvements could be carried out.

Cllr McGarvey said issues like this should not have to come before a meeting. The road was dangerous and needed immediate attention, he said.