Bus stop needed at Laois housing estate says councillor
One of the 'state-of-the-art' new bus shelters already installed in Portlaoise
AT the most recent meeting of Portlaoise municipal district, Fianna Fáil Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald urged the area office to install a bus stop at the location for a myriad of reasons.
The councillor made a point of underlining that Fieldbrooke, which is on the Dublin Road and is an area of population density with hundreds of homes, does not have any public transport infrastructure that is easily accessible to residents with impaired mobility.
The nearest bus stop is at Portlaoise general hospital, a seven-minute walk away from the entrance to Fieldbrooke housing estate, but several times that for those in a wheelchair or living with other mobility issues.
As well as being difficult for those with impaired movement, the footpaths between the estate entrance and Portlaoise general hospital are narrow and severely weathered in places, leaving them prone to becoming waterlogged after periods of heavy rainfall, posing another difficulty to residents of the estate.
The official response from the area office was: ‘The council is not in a position to provide a new bus stop in Fieldbrooke. Investment is currently focused on the upgrade of existing bus stops across the county over and above the provision of new bus stops. In this case, there is an existing bus stop nearby Portlaoise hospital, which serves both local and long-distance bus services.’
In response, Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald said: "I think it's an ideal spot for a bus stop. I would just urge you to look at it again."
The motion was seconded by Cllr Caroline Dwane Stanley, who highlighted that she had many locals come to her saying that they won't use the Portlaoise hospital bus stop as the walk up towards it is quite "built up" with cars and traffic and that they would prefer a bus stop that better served the suburb of Fieldbrooke rather than having to go down a road where cars are travelling at quite fast speeds – up to 80 kilometres an hour, a daunting prospect for many parents of young children.
Cllr Dwane Stanely said: "I’m just wondering if it is possible to engage with transport and see because it's a year now since the bus was rolled out and there's s a couple of other routes that we've continuously raised as well and it would be an ideal opportunity to invite them in, maybe, and ask them to have a look at extending the route if that's possible."
