Wallace concerned over Coralstown NS safety

The failure to include Coralstown National School on the list of locations at which Safer Routes to School traffic calming measures were installed was criticised by Cllr Emily Wallace at the September meeting of the Mullingar Kinnegad Municipal District.

Reacting to the response of the district executive, Cllr Wallace said she was disappointed over the non-inclusion.

The explanation from the executive was that while the school did respond to the expression of interest issued to all schools in March 2021, it had not yet been selected for assessment by An Taisce under the first three rounds of the programme.

“An announcement of the schools to be included in the next round is expected to be made later this year,” the response stated, going on to explain that the An Taisce infrastructure officer will make direct contact with the principals of those schools selected for the next round when they are decided.

The response went on to explain that a funding allocation for interventions under the Safe Routes to School Programme will not be provided to Westmeath County Council for schools until they are selected for assessment.

“Once the Outline Delivery Plan has been completed by the An Taisce Infrastructure Officer, working in collaboration with the School Principal and Westmeath County Council, the design and implementation of interventions identified will be undertaken,” it concluded.

Pressing the case for Coralstown, Cllr Wallace said there is an ongoing issue with speed at the school and a need for traffic calming: “Is there anything we can do in the interim?” she asked.

She said that because it is a rural school and thus, probably not highly prioritised in the Safer Routes to School scheme in relation to other schools, does not mean the work was not a necessity there.

District engineer Pat Kavanagh agreed that progress under the Safer Routes to Schools scheme can be a bit slow.

He said, if an allocation of €20,000 was made in next year’s district estimates, works could be undertaken there that would certainly slow down the traffic passing the school.

“There's a bit of work: it needs streetlights and it needs ramps,” he said, going on to point out that councillors were not far from deciding on their 2026 estimates and so could make a decision at that stage on whether to make provision for the work.

Killucan

At the same meeting, Cllr Emily Wallace asked the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad for an update on the installation of traffic calming measures on the Cloughan Road, Killucan, and for an estimated timeline for delivery.

In response, the district confirmed that works are scheduled to commence within the next 10 weeks.