Traffic calming action sought on road at Delvin preschool
The urgent need for traffic calming measures on a busy road outside a preschool at Castletown on the Delvin to Athboy N51 is to be raised at the December meeting of Westmeath County Council.
Earlier this year, Rita McGrath of Peter Pan Montessori and Preschool, Delvin, supported by parents and her staff, put together a petition urging the council to take action to slow traffic down at that location, creating a safe place for children to cross, as there is only one footpath coming out of the village.
Former councillor, Una D’Arcy, had pursued the matter in the past, and convinced the council to carry out a safety audit on the road.
“Una got the road researched but the findings have not been acted on,” Rita McGrath told the Westmeath Examiner. “Unfortunately for us, Una was not returned to office in May.
“But we had Cllr John Shaw out to our preschool recently and he promised to take up where Una left off and bring our proposals to the next council meeting.”
Rita says that the road is a “huge issue” in Delvin at the moment.
Cllr Shaw told her that he was aware of the safety audit, but not the findings. After making further enquiries, he found that the audit had been carried out but as yet, its recommendations had not been implemented.
“The findings show that the volume of traffic was higher than expected, and the speed was in excess of the speed limit of 60kmph,” said Rita.
“This stretch of road used to have a speed limit of 50kmph, but this was changed more than a year ago. Also, we only have one footpath, when we really should have two.
“Therefore, parents and children have to cross this busy road.
“As it is the only straight stretch of road between Delvin and Athboy, drivers use it to pass each other out at great speed. At times, it’s madness. There’s a lot of crazy driving.”
Cllr Shaw has secured the support of former Coole area colleagues, Cllr Paddy Hill and Cllr Frank McDermott, with a view to raising the matter at the council’s December meeting.