Road outside Laois school in desperate need of safety measures

A ROAD outside Arles National School is in desperate need of a variety of traffic calming measures, including speed ramps and pedestrian crossings.

The motion was brought to the recent meeting of Graiguecullen/Portarlington Municipal District by councillor Aisling Moran, who received the following response from the roads design department of the local area office: ‘Roads design are currently preparing a feasibility and options report for Arles. A draft report was sent to TII and the safety department of TII to assess. The report back from TII noted that additional works were required, including a full topographical survey of the town. A preliminary design and costings are currently being prepared from the various options proposed.’ Cllr Moran found this state of affairs appalling, saying that she had been screaming at this issue for seven years already – ever since she started as a councillor.

Cllr Moran expressed frustration that they, as a council, were supposed to be talking about road safety and saving lives and yet an issue that should have been as simple as installing a crossing near a school for children to safely traverse the road continued to encounter a mire of delays.

The councillor continued: “The footpaths aren’t even wide enough on the roads and when are are they going to look at doing a full topographical survey of the town. What exactly do they mean?” A representative of the area office explained that such a survey mandated that a study be taken of all existing features associated with the roads network of a particular area; it gives a geometric map of the village itself, which allows the roads design department to build an official design based on what they see.

Cllr Moran proceeded to highlight the danger on both entries to the village, especially the side closer to the school and one linked to a housing estate, where children and elderly people had to face cars at high speeds to reach the other side.

“It's been going on so long now and it's not up to the council, it's up to the TII here. Our hands are tied here.” The councillor also pressed the area office to see if it had received a specific timeline from the TII on any of these issues, to which the representative conceded they had not.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.