Rochfortbridge needs road safety action – urgently

Concerns over road safety for pedestrians and other road users in Rochfortbridge were raised by four members of the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad at the November meeting.

Cllrs Denis Leonard, Niall Gaffney and David Jones asked that the district work with the resident representative group in Rochfortbridge on a whole of village approach to traffic calming, including the provision of ramps, pedestrian crossing and signage, while Cllr Emily Wallace suggested a full village traffic safety audit, with a targeted approach to slowing the through traffic.

The formal response provided to the four stated that the district, along with the council’s transportation section, had met a number of representatives from the schools in Rochfortbridge: “Land has been acquired, and a design is currently being prepared for planning to accommodate car and bus parking,” the response stated.

It continued by stating that the schools are part of the Safe Route to School Programme, and that planning conditions have been placed to resolve bus and parking issues associated with the secondary school planning application.

“Other works such as ramps can be considered as part of the 2026 estimates,” it concluded.

Cllr Leonard said the matter needed to be “moved up the food chain”.

“I know Collinstown and Tyrrellspass have been prioritised but Killucan and Rochfortbridge, as far as I can see, need a whole-of-village approach – and that’s what we’ve all asked for in different ways.”

Continuing, he said there were about five or six different traffic issues bedevilling the town – and it also has one of the busiest secondary schools in the county.

Cllr David Jones, referring to a meeting in Rochfortbridge that morning attended by several councillors and officials, said traffic calming was required through the village, and not just at the school.

“The local authority is stepping in the right direction,” he said, but he was keen to see some firm commitments, especially given that a petition of 500 signatures had been handed to them that morning,

Cllr Emily Wallace remarked that nearly 120 locals had met a couple of weeks earlier (see separate report) to air their concerns over the issue, and there had been two further meetings with the public since that. She stated that the councillors had been informed that had there been more time, more signatures would have been added to that petition.

She was deeply concerned about the lack of action to date – despite the fact that there had been allocations of funding made for the village: “I have brought up numerous motions and questions here, and I know in February 2023, we were given an Active Travel grant of €100,000 to €50,000 each for Scoil Chroí Naofa and St Joseph’s and then last year, we also secured €10,000 for the two schools, again, in relation to an Active Travel grant.

“We also had funding approved in March for six ramps in Castlelost, Stonebridge Park, and Rahanine Manor, and to date, we’ve had nothing in place out of the ground.”

She said there are some 1200 students at the secondary school and 250 in the primary.

“We can’t sit on our hands any longer,” she said.

Cllr Niall Gaffney said there is nothing scarier than people telling of near-misses and accidents that are narrowly avoided, particularly when they are preventable, and he referred to the petition presented to the council that morning.

“I know how seriously the council takes these, particularly when there’s buy-in from everyone in the community, from residents associations, businesses, local volunteer groups, it’s something that every aspect of Rochfortbridge has been asked about,” he said, saying that the works required needed to be treated as a priority.

District engineer Pat Kavanagh appreciated the concerns but explained that he had sought funding for national roads and as it had arrived towards the end of the year, the contractors have been working in shifts day and night to ensure the council did not lose out on the funding that it had sought for so long.

He said, however, now that the works were done, it is his intention that the ramps will be installed in Rochfortbridge by the end of December. He said since the contractor’s staff have been working day and night, more than that could not be asked of them.

Continuing, Mr Kavanagh said that he has been consulting a lot with the people of Rochfortbridge for the last year, or maybe longer. He said there is a good committee working on behalf of the school, and the council had been trying to guide them through the process of finding additional land.

“The committee have since secured land,” he said, adding that they have also engaged a consultant who is drawing up a plan that will address a lot of the parking issues, including that of providing parking for up to 15 buses, or more.

“We have more or less agreed on a type of design that will be acceptable and will certainly be a huge help to the area. My understanding is that the consultant is working on that and will be lodging a planning application fairly soon,” he stated.

Mr Kavanagh added that once the planning application is lodged, applications for funding can be made through Active Travel, Safe Routes to School, and through the Dept of Education.

He said that on the issue of general safety in Rochfortbridge, as funding becomes available, the council will certainly try to push through additional traffic safety measures. “It is quite a busy town, and it’s used as a bypass from the motorway,” he said.

Director of services Deirdre Reilly said the issue was a priority. “We all know where we want to get to,” she stated, adding that the key to the success of any measures to be implemented would be having the enabling works done before the construction of the new school buildings at St Joseph’s.

“The executive are listening to the concerns of the people, and we’re doing our best in relation to that,” she said.

Pedestrian crossings

At the same meeting, Cllr Emily Wallace asked for a timeline on the raising of pedestrian crossings at Milltownpass GAA and Rochfortbridge SPAR, which had been agreed previously to help slow traffic.

The Municipal District advised that it will examine that work as part of the 2026 estimates.

Cllr Wallace said the measures were urgently needed. “You know, we’ve already spoken about speed and traffic calming, and this points to the same… we have pedestrian crossings within Milltownpass and Rochfortbridge, and cars just drive across those like they’re on fire. It was agreed at a previous meeting that we would look at raising those, so that when a car hits it, it won’t hit it a second time.

I welcome that being included in the estimates. Can we also include the zebra crossing coming from the road into Rochfortbridge as part of those? That would be one, two, three in that, as you work,” she said.

Mr Kavanagh confirmed: “It is our intention to look at Rochfortbridge as part of that planning with the school.”