Portarlington primary school has no parking space

There is no room for cars or buses to park at Portarlington primary school on Sandy Lane, and the council say traffic calming measures will not help.

Last week Cllr Tom Mulhall made a request to Laois County Council to install traffic calming, but all agreed the only solution was to make more land available across from the school.

“Space is very tight. There are about 100 pupils and there is no real drop-off or pick-up point. There is quite a bit of traffic from the Portlaoise side,” he said.

Senior engineer Orla Barrett said “fantastic cycle lanes” were coming to the area.

“Unless they can buy or get land, the school hasn’t any scope on their grounds for bus parking. Traffic isn’t speeding so traffic calming would have no benefit. You are looking for set-down parking but there is a limited width in the road. We will see what is the traffic count and maybe get the school to meet with our traffic safety officer,” she said.

Ms Barrett said a range of measures could help alleviate traffic jams.

“They could have an unofficial one-way system for parents, and older children cound walk down the road and be collected on Crowe Lane. No one thing is going to fix this,” she said.

They discussed the potential of using land offered across the road.

“The owner is agreeable, he has agreed that if a bus stop was to pull in, the road could be widened,” said Cllr Paul Mitchell.

“The problem is we can’t use local funding to build it, if he owns the land,” replied Ms Barrett.

Cllr Mitchell also suggested that the Landsdowne estate road be opened to help with parking problems.