Call for action on safety outside ballivor school

A petition calling for urgent infrastructural improvements outside St Columbanus' National School in Ballivor was submitted to a meeting of Trim Municipal District on Friday.

The petition, which was signed by 450 local people, was presented to councillors by the chairperson of the school's parents’ association, Tracy McElhinney, herself a former Labour Party councillor.

According to Ms McElhinney, the footpaths near the school are in a state of disrepair and have resulted in a number of 'near misses' involving children walking on the road.

She also cited the pedestrian crossing as a blackspot for antisocial behaviour and urged the council to move the crossing to a more suitable location. It is currently positioned at the entrance to a housing estate.

Other issues raised by Ms McElhinney included the lack of suitable parking space for parents at the school and poor signage for motorists approaching the school.

Her calls for action received unanimous support from all councillors, with Cllr Noel French describing the issues as 'a dangerous situation'.

'Parents' concerns need to be addressed and the least we can do is provide a footpath,' he said. 'The school is on a major routeway, which compounds the dangers and speeding on approach roads is a problem. More parking is needed also,' he said.

Cllr French also accused the Department of Education of failing to take required infrastructure such as pathways and set-down areas into account when designing and building new schools.

'There are new schools coming up in Kildalkey and Longwood, and Meath County Council and the Department of Education needs to have a co-operative approach to the provision of necessary infrastructure when they come on-stream,' he said. 'In too many cases, the local authority is playing catch-up.'

Cllr Caroline Lynch, who recently visited the school, added that the footpath opposite the school is also 'extremely dangerous' and called for improved signage.

'The parents are adamant that there will be a very serious accident due to the speed of traffic coming into the village as children are now on the road instead of the pavement,' she added.

Cllr Enda Flynn, who is also a school principal, extended responsibility to three main groups - the school, the parents and the councillors.

'The school is responsible for the orderly dispersal of children from the classroom to the exit areas,' he said. 'While the parents must take care when parking in the area. I understand that there is a parking area at the school that isn’t yet surfaced, and it may be possible to develop this in the future.'

He added: 'As for the councillors, I agree that the footpath should be improved, the pedestrian crossing should be moved to a suitable location and signage should be in place.'

Lamenting the repetitive nature of such issues, Cllr Trevor Golden called for a standardised approach to the provision of required infrastructure for all schools within towns' 50km/h boundary.

'We will be here in six months for another area and that will continue ad infinitum,' he said. 'It's getting a bit annoying and not one councillor here wouldn't agree that we should have such a policy.'

Cllr Golden also noted that some schools are in operation for five years or more before the local authority installs a pedestrian crossing for the safety of students. 'When you're talking about the centre of a village and you can't get these basic necessities, there's something seriously wrong,' he added. 'We need a bigger plan to deal with this issue in all villages in the entire county.'

Cllr Ronan McKenna, meanwhile, agreed that the area had been neglected for too long while Cllr Joe Fox supported Cllr Golden's sentiment that a formal policy should be in place to regulate the provision of required infrastructure in and around the county's schools.