Speed of traffic at schools ‘frightening’
The speed at which cars career past the school in Moyvore is frightening, according to Cllr Vinny McCormack, who has called for specific funding each year for speed reductions and safety measures in every town and village.
He said the "great project" done at High Street, Ballymore, should be replicated in other areas. "We need to develop more plans like this" and "the only way we are going to protect lives in our towns and villages is if we fund them properly", he said.
Cllr McCormack was addressing the April meeting of Westmeath County Council, at which he received overwhelming support from fellow members present.
Cllr Emily Wallace said she could name 14 schools where there had been an issue with speeding. She remarked that a lot of towns and villages were not built for the speed or power of modern traffic. Many schools lie outside the speed limit zones and that should be taken into consideration in the measures implemented, she suggested.
Cllr Paul Hogan said a speed of 107kmh was recorded in a village with a 50kmh zone in a recent survey. He proposed that the council write to the Dept of Transport seeking funding to deal with the problem.
Cllr Tom Farrell called for a "school safety zone" at every national school, whether it is on a regional road or a local road. He agreed that the Ballymore scheme was a fine example of what could be done and said the council should have a specific budget every year for such work.
The cathaoirleach, Cllr Liam McDaniel, said speed is also an issue on approach roads to every town and village. He remarked that when the M6 was built in his "neck of the woods", overpasses were provided and the approach roads into the towns and villages were widened – Kilbeggan coming in from Clara, Tyrrellspass coming in from Daingean, and that invites speeding.
Cllr McDaniel asked that when traffic calming measures are being introduced in Tyrrellspass and Castlepollard this year, they set a template for other towns and villages and that the design take on board the views of the members.
Cllr McCormack welcomed the united approach by members. He said it was up to them to decide what level of funding to provide, depending on what is available year on year.
The meeting was told that the council has a coordinated and consistent approach to providing traffic calming measures in towns and villages. The council are adopting a whole of village approach in the planning and design of such schemes and that will ensure that towns and villages will be fully traffic calmed on a prioritised and sequential basis over time.
The council will seek to identify external resources of funding to support the programme and the issue of council funding may be considered in the context of the corporate plan 2025-2029 and during the budgetary process.
Interim chief executive, Barry Kehoe, agreed that "some urban areas can be unpleasant because of the speed of traffic through them and this needs to be addressed".
Roads have improved, as have the cars and, in fairness to drivers, they don’t realise the speed they are doing, he said.
Mr Kehoe reminded members that new speed limits and guidelines are expected in the near future. They would argue with the department that there is no point just putting numbers on signs – they need to put measures in place to insure that the new speed limits are observed, he said.