Bollards urged at Laois school where cars 'clipping' children on bicycle lane

Cars are hitting off students in Laois trying to cycle home on bicycle lanes, according to a Portlaoise councillor.

The illegal parking problem has been going on for since the Borris Road secondary school campus in Portlaoise opened in 2010, with no carpark onsite for waiting parents. Instead cars park up on the footpaths and cycle lanes outside the campus.

Students on bicycles are being 'clipped' says Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald.

She has tabled a motion to the October meeting of Portlaoise Municipal District, asking Laois County Council to install safety measures at St Mary's CBS and Scoil Chríost Rí campus.

"These measure should include bollards to protect cyclists and infrastructure for students walking to school," she said.

"We need this sooner than later. I am getting constant complaints from parents of students on bicycles. People are being clipped by cars. I know you have a plan, but it's needed now," she said.

"Can we put in temporary bollards? People told me it's too dangerous. Something temporary until we get a permanent job done," she said.

Cllr Thomasina Connell seconded the motion.

"We are a low carbon town, we are trying to promote active travel," she said.

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Cllr Willie Aird stressed that infrastructure must be installed before the next secondary school is built in Portlaoise, Dunamase College.

"We as the seven Portlaoise councillors need to be proactive for the new school, it needs all the infrastructure in place.

"It is a job well done out there at CBS, the number of bikes in the sheds, its absolutely full but that only happened in the last three years. They were years at it and are still at it. We need to get the next one right," he said.

Laois County Council's senior engineer over Active Travel is Diarmuid Donohue. He stated in a reply that the council has applied to the National Transport Agency for money under the Active Travel Programme, to carry out vulnerable road user safety improvements on the Borris Road, at the school campus.