Lucky escape: Twice “a car came close to knocking me down”

Following a petition organised by the Scoil Phádraig Home School Association calling for the reinstatement of a school traffic warden in Westport, several local politicians, parents, teachers and residents voiced their frustration over the continued absence of the position.

LeeAnne Johnstone left a comment under the petition stating: “My child goes to this school and has additional needs. A crossing guard is imperative to ensure the safety of my child and others. This is an extremely busy, dangerous road for children to cross.”

Mary Carr also commented under the petition, expressing her frustration at the absence of a school traffic warden: “ I collect grandchildren from Scoil Phádraig, and the three of us use the pedestrian crossing. On two occasions, a car came close to knocking me down.”

School Principal at Scoil Phádraig, Fergus Seoighe, told The Mayo News: “The situation still has not been resolved. Mayo County Council have informed me that they do not have any available staff to fill the role and in addition, have no plans to allocate staff to it in the future.

“In recent weeks, I have been regularly approached by parents and other road users at the school to inform me of ‘close encounters’ and ‘near misses’ for our children. Our school community view the situation as urgent and in essence ‘an accident waiting to happen’".

READ MORE: Planning application lodged for padel courts in south Mayo

Political pressure

DEPUTY Keira Keogh recently brought up the need for more streamlined funding for lollipop people during Road Safety Statements.

The Fine Gael TD told The Mayo News that she has been engaging locally with the local authority, but “they are struggling to find someone to replace the previous two staff. It is not a standalone job in this district, so it’s proving difficult.

“However, there are many other towns and villages where there are rotas for lollipop people and the Department funds training to ensure they are prepared.”

In a positive development, she noted that the road reviews should be soon, and it is likely speed will be reduced to 30km/h near the school.

Westport councillor Peter Flynn has expressed frustration with the amount of time it has taken to start traffic calming measures further up the Newport Road, despite the planning and funding being in place.

He told The Mayo News that he pushed for the traffic calming measures to be extended all the way down to the two primary schools, but was told by the Council and NTA that this would happen until a future phase of traffic calming measures is completed.

He noted the traffic warden role was "a legacy service that the Town Council provided to our three town primary schools, but there is an ongoing challenge with the Senior Executive of Mayo County Council looking to dismantle all that was good with the Town Council, and this is just another example of it."