No pedigree on Gracefield road
The cross is located near the popular Pedigree Corner pub and restaurant
GRACEFIELD Road, near Pedigree Corner bar and nightclub in Ballylinan, poses significant safety risks to the passage of local school buses and articulated trucks as they are unable to pass each other at certain points on the road.
The installation of twinned passing bays along Pedigree Corner would alleviate the risk to children attending local schools in the area.
The warning was delivered to the recent meeting of Portarlington municipal district by retiring Cllr Padraig Fleming – incidentally, his final motion as a councillor; this was his final meeting in the council chamber – who said: "A lot of lorries go up that road and meet the school buses at different stages. If they meet a car in a particular area in two spots it'll be in that area in two spots and these roads are too narrow to have big transport vehicles on them, so when cars come they can't pass, so the cars have to reverse to let the lorries pass, so we hope that it's considered for the road. It's needed.’’ Cllr Aisling Moran seconded the motion and expressed mock surprise that the staff at LCC hadn't just immediately tossed Padraig the money on account of it being his final motion in his last council meeting. Ms Moran said: "… but I do want to support him on the road and there is actually a trucking business on the road, so I can see that it's needed."
At this point, another councillor suggested that they might contact Bus Eireann about potentially collaborating on the bypass with LCC or perhaps changing the route so that the buses weren't at risk, to which Aisling Moran scoffed, saying that they were a law unto themselves and that they had failed to engage with the council on previous school-related safety concerns.
A representative of the engineering department of LCC said that they would carry out an assessment to consider the merits of a bypass for the section of the road in question.
