'Complaints' over quality of road safety works at Laois primary school

A Portlaoise councillor has again alerted Laois County Council to local complaints over the quality of road safety works at a Laois primary school.

The Rock National School, on the busy R442 road between Mountmellick and the M7 motorway, is undergoing works to make it safer for schoolchildren, including a new footpath and bollards, a speed bump, more signs and more lighting.

The work began in October 2025 and is still underway in December, with no speed bump yet installed. A loose gravel foot path and kerb is installed for a short distance from the school, some of it including bollards.

Laois County Council said in November that their plan had been altered for road safety and for budgetary reasons, and would no longer include "the intended footpath".

The update followed a motion by Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald to the November meeting of Portlaoise Municipal District, where she and Cllr Caroline Dwane Stanley said they had received complaints from residents over the surface quality of the path.

In the December MD meeting, Cllr Fitzgerald again raised the issue of complaints.

A truck heading past The Rock, next to the new gravel path. Photos: Leinster Express

"I got complaints that there are different surfaces, and about the quality of the surfaces. Can that be looked at? Some people aren't happy," she said.

"I will liaise," the engineer Wes Wilkinson said.

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The Rock NS with 200 pupils and an Autism unit, is beside a busy road linking the M7 to the west. Heavy traffic including trucks mostly exceeds the school's 30kmph speed limit during school drop-off and collection times.

The Rock area lies within the Portlaoise Municipal District as it is on the east side of the Triogue River.