Fianna Fail General Election candidate for Galway East, Councillor Albert Dolan, has called for greater investment in road safety measures and a wider roll out of the Safe Routes to School Scheme, to limit the speed of traffic travelling through rural villages in East Galway.
Residents in localities such as Bullaun, Craughwell, Menlough and Dunmore have gave their concerns to Cllr Dolan about the amount of drivers who go past the legal speed limits in their villages daily, putting vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists at risk.
“I have met a large number of concerned parents and residents, expressing their concerns to me about the speed at which cars travel through their villages. It’s clear that further investment in East Galway is needed to ensure that constituents feel safe,” he said.
Cllr Dolan has also said that parents in particular are seriously worried about the safety of their children as they travel to school, “There’s an ongoing issue at Coldwood N.S, near the village of Craughwell where parents have told me they are scared to let their children walk to school due to the speed at which cars are travelling there. Meanwhile we have a new state of the art National School built in the village of Bullaun but none of the necessary road infrastructure put in place to allow children to cycle or walk to school. This is a situation that urgently needs to be addressed”
An initiative of the Department of Transport, backed by the Department of Education, the Safe Routes to School Programme is designed to encourage as many pupils and students as possible in Primary and Post-Primary Education to walk and cycle to their schools. Launched in March 2021, the scheme is operated by An Taisce’s Green Schools Programme with assistance from the National Transport Authority and local authorities, Councillor Dolan believes there is still work to be done before schools in East Galway can properly avail of the programme.
