Call for bigger exit at Donacarney school to help ease chaos outside facility
THE Board of Management at the Donacarney Boys and Girls schools are to be contacted in a bid to try and solve safety issues in the vicinity of the facility.
Road Safety officer with Meath CC, Michael Finnegan, told a recent area meeting that there was a ‘major problem’ in the area.
‘ The car park is not being used to full capacity because the parents say it takes too long to get out of the car park,’ he stated. ‘ The exit gate caters for one car and they are coming in twos. If there was a turn right and left coming out of the school it could help the bottleneck there.’
He added that the development of a footpath to Whitefield Manor would solve a lot of the problems with students then able to walk or cycle.
Cllr Stephen McKee said there was also an issue with the width of the existing path from the community centre. ‘It’s an urban area with a country road,’ he explained. He advised that rumble strips might help the problem.
Cllr Sharon Keogan suggested writing to the school authorities, asking for a wider exit area, but felt that the onus was also on parents. ‘If they could, they’d drop the kids into the classroom at 90mph!,’ she stated. ‘Parents have to realise that getting a child to school safely is the issue, not trying to get away as quickly as possible.’
Cllr Sharon Tolan said that 1,700 more homes were being built and the roads were not fit for such numbers.
‘We had a walking study for Bettystown agreed in 2014 and there was no funding from the NTA for it, but they said there would be.’
She said the one issue she saw with the school exit was sightlines as cars would then be leaving in two directions.