Safety works at Laois school would be done if it was Portlaoise, meeting told

Delays in having safety works started on a “dangerous” stretch of road near a school in Laois were questioned at a recent council meeting.  

The issue arose when Cllr Ben Brennan put down a motion asking: “That Laois County Council give an update on the safety measures being put in place on the Knockbeg Road as it is very dangerous especially during school time.”

In a written response,  Senior Engineer Mr Adrian Barrett said: “The Road Design office will arrange to meet with Cllr Brennan on site to assess the problem and identify a solution.” 

“Who is on roads because Farhan(Farhan Nasiem – Senior Executive Engineer. Road Design) is gone, who is taking over?” asked Cllr Brennan. “What am I going to do, go stand out there on my own?” said Cllr Brennan.  

“It is going on three or four years now and people are very agitated. There’s over 500 kids in that school, there’s the bones of 300 cars going in and out there every morning and the same in the evening,” said Cllr Brennan. 

Cllr Aisling Moran offered her support to the motion at the last meeting of Portarlington Graiguecullen Municipal District. “I have to agree with Ben. That road is treacherous,” she said. 

“If it was a road near Portlaoise it would be done. It would be widened, it would be strengthened, there would be a cycle lane on it,” she claimed.  

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Cllr Padraig Fleming agreed with Cllr Brennan. He said he has had a motion down on the matter eight months ago. He said there was only one member of the road designs team left in the council and he was “under ferocious” pressure. “They are snowed under,” he remarked.

Agreeing with his colleagues, Cllr Paschal McEvoy said “it is not good enough to say we have a backlog of work to be done because we are short of engineers.”

Cllr Moran expressed her belief that there had to be a faster way to employ staff when needed