14 Leitrim national schools are not on gritting routes

Following last month's prolonged cold spell concerns have been raised over safe access to schools in future cold weather events after it emerged that 14 schools are not included on regular gritting routes.

While the majority of schools in Leitrim are located along current winter maintenance gritting circuit, “there are a small number of schools which are located on roads which are not.”

At Monday's Council meeting, Cllr Padraig Fallon highlighted the issue calling for “all roads in the county with primary schools on them be added to the winter maintenance plan”.

Paying tribute to the Council's outdoor staff for their help in treating roads to schools during the recent cold snap, he said that this is something which needs to be addressed especially “in the event that we may have severe weather conditions in the next few months.”

He said, “I was contacted by a number of parents and also by people who have no children going to school and they were surprised that there were children travelling in cars and buses to schools on untreated roads.”

Cllr Sean McDermott noted his own local national school is only a short distance from a treated national route but the additional distance to the school remains untreated.“These new routes would make a big difference in allowing schools to remain open,” Cllr McDermott said.

The motion received widespread support from councillors who asked that, if it is not possible to grit these additional roads, the local authority could look at providing salt bins in these locations.

Senior Executive Engineer, Terry McGovern explained that there isn't any additional capacity in the current gritting schedule to include treating roads to these schools.

He pointed out that there are more than 2,300km of roads in the county and only a certain proportion of these are included in the Winter Maintenance Plan.

It was noted that Priority 1 roads in the plan deal with the treatment of national roads such as the N4 and N16 while Priority 2 covers regional roads. In total these two priority categories amount to approximately 500km of roads that are being regularly treated.

Priority 3 roads under the plan include other priority roads and these may receive intermittent treatment during certain severe weather events.

“There are some 43 schools in the county and there are 14 on roads other than Priority 1 and 2 routes,” noted Mr McGovern. He explained that the Winter Maintenance Plan has already been revised and expanded over the past two years and added that, as it stands, “we can't really add (the roads these additional schools are on) as we are already working at maximum capacity.”

Mr McGovern said he “acknowledged where councillors were coming from” but said it required an additional 72km of gritting just to get to the 14 additional schools from the nearest point (on a gritting route).

He pointed out that this measurement used the most direct route from the nearest treated road adding these routes “may not be the main access for traffic travelling to these schools.”

Mr McGovern said that if he was to take into account gritting the main access roads, the length of roads requiring treatment would be substantially higher.

“I would need two or three extra lorries and so it wouldn't be possible to do this,” he informed councillors.

However, he sought to assure councillors and parents of students at these schools that provision will be made to include these roads with Priority 3 roads in times of “severe weather” adding the Council is also prepared to have a salt bin and keep it stocked at nearby locations in the event of prolonged icy conditions.

He said that in prolonged severe weather the Council will “try to get out every three or four days” to deal with these roads adding that the residual salt should help those travelling in these areas between treatments.

At present, there are 43 salt bin locations in the county and it was noted that if a school wished to, they could contact the Council to organise the supply of a bin.

Cllr Fallon said that he hoped the Winter Maintenance Plan could be revisited next year.