Dangerous Trim traffic needs to be diverted

The monthly meeting of Trim Area (county) councillors took place on Monday last in Mornington House, Trim. At the previous meeting, I raised the issue of diverting dangerous heavy traffic which take the short cut through Patrick Street, thereby putting at risk the 1,000 young children from the two primary schools in Patrick Street as well as the 1,000 secondary school students. At Monday"s meeting, the area engineer presented his report on this issue and, unbelievably, his report essentially recommended that no diversion or ramps be constructed. I have lived in this area for over 40 years and see the dangers posed to the children, parents and residents on a daily basis. It"s not that long ago since a car crashed into my neighbour"s front wall and demolished it. Before that, a low loader demolished my front wall. We were fortunate no child was killed or injured, however, it is only a matter of time until another crash takes place and a child and/or parent is seriously injured or killed. A young man died in a crash near the entrance to St Joseph"s Hospital. I could not believe that the engineer would put the safety of children and public before the inconvenience of heavy trucks using the by-pass route. To make matters worse, councillors Willie Carey, Peter Higgins, Jimmy Fegan and Seamus Murray all backed the engineer"s report to do nothing. Cllr Trevor Golden was also at the meeting as the current chairman of Trim Town Council and, despite hearing the town council call for safety measures for Patrick Street, Cllr Golden backed the area engineer and the other four county councillors to do nothing to protect children. I informed the area engineer that I would hold him responsible for accidents in Patrick Street, only to be then verbally abused by Cllrs Fegan and Murray for doing so. I asked that my opposition to doing nothing be recorded. Sadly, it will take the death of a child to bring these people to see the stupidity of their inaction on Monday. Yours, Cllr Phil Cantwell, Trim.