Mayo councillor claims Safe Routes to School scheme is a ‘closed shop’

An east Mayo councillor has claimed that the Safe Routes to School programme is a ‘closed shop’ after it emerged that no new schools will be added until the 51 schools currently on the scheme in Mayo are processed.

The monthly meeting of the Claremorris/Swinford Municipal District heard that 21 schools in Mayo have been selected to be included in the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Programme with another 30 waiting to be included in the next round of funding.

The scheme is operated by An Taisce in partnership with the National Transport Authority (NTA) and local authorities and Mayo County Council engineer, Tomás McLoughlin explained that the current advice is there won’t be any further calls for schools to be part of the programme until the existing schools have gone through the system.

Ballyhaunis-based councillor Alma Gallagher commented that only two schools in her area had been selected to date and questioned when new schools would be considered for the programme.

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“I know many schools who are trying to get into the system but it is not a very transparent process in terms of inviting all schools to come on board. The likelihood is we had a lot of announcements but only two in our area and we have to go through 51 before there is a call made and God knows where we will be then,” she told the meeting.

The Fine Gael councillor said it was not encouraging for the schools looking to get on the scheme and at the moment it was a ‘closed shop’.

When asked what the criteria for selecting schools were, Mr McLoughlin said Mayo County Council were not involved in that process and it was up to school principals to apply to An Taisce.

Foxford-based councillor Neil Cruise felt the meeting had exposed a lot of weaknesses with the system and that school principals had a lot to be doing besides applying for these programmes. He said he believed it would be better for local engineers to start identifying schools and the best ways to improve safety for children going to school.

Director of Services, Tom Gilligan, said the scheme is aimed at encouraging children to walk and cycle to school and schools are selected based on the safety needs. He acknowledged there are a huge number of schools already in the system and dealing with those will rely largely on resources available to do it.