*Ballaghboy.
ENNIS politicians have said they are “duty-bound” to highlight the dangers for ‘unsupervised Traveller children’ who are at risk of an accident due to the absence of a footpath from the Quin Rd to the Ballaghboy site with principals describing it as “an accident waiting to happen”.
Nine serviced bays are situated in the Ballaghboy halting site in Doora, two of which are vacant. The lack of safe walking infrastructure for residents in the traveller accommodation has been brought to the attention of county councillors by principals of the Holy Family NS.
In a joint proposal, Cllr Clare Colleran Molloy (FF) and Cllr Antoinette Baker Bashua (FF) brought the matter before the Ennis Municipal District where they sought the delivery of “immediate interim safety measures such as warning signage, reduced speed limits, or temporary walkways, and to develop a permanent footpath solution”.
Principals of the senior and junior school at the Holy Family asked the situation “be treated as a matter of critical child safety, not long-term planning”. They expressed “deep concerns for the safety of children who walk this route daily, that every morning at approximately 8:30am during peak traffic young children from the Ballaghboy Halting Site must walk nearly 700 meters along a busy stretch of road with no footpath, from the site to Jonno’s Bar. There is no safe walking infrastructure to protect them from fast-moving vehicles”.
According to the principals, two staff members “have been involved in serious traffic accidents on that same stretch of road in the recent past due to drivers, in one instance being intoxicated and the other, texting while driving. The situation is not only dangerous; it is untenable. In our view, the children’s current journey to and from school is an imminent accident waiting to happen. Currently, children from three families at Ballaghboy are enrolled in our school, with more expected as younger siblings and other Ballaghboy families reach school age. This means that the risk is ongoing and likely to increase unless immediate action is taken”.
Acting senior engineer in the Ennis MD, Paddy Tiernan acknowledged the concerns raised by the principals and “the genuine worry that motivates such correspondence. Safety on our county roads is of concern for all our citizens and the safety of our children heightens this sense of urgency to implement all possible measures at every location. Members will be aware that Ennis MD receives a significant number of requests each year for new footpaths, active travel infrastructure, and road safety improvements. We endeavour to carefully assess all requests on their merits, but unfortunately, not all can be accommodated”.
Estimated costs of the proposed project are €350,000 excluding land costs, Tiernan advised. “In the context of all possible road safety projects and funding availability we cannot, unfortunately, commit to this project at this time. We will, however, continue to review the options and measures to address the concern”.
Speaking at the November meeting of the Ennis MD, Cllr Colleran Molloy noted it “it is a tricky one to locate a source of funding but at the same time both Cllr Baker Bashua and I have been speaking about this, I met the principals of both the junior and senior school at The Holy Family, there is no doubt about it, they are very worried that a serious accident is going to occur here, most especially for the young Traveller children staying on the Ballaghboy site who in some cases are not supervised by their parents, you can talk about parental supervision or lack thereof but in some instances it is not possible”.
There is “big money involved in constructing the footpath,” she accepted. “We are duty bound to highlight this, there is a real danger here. I’m a bit disappointed that the response doesn’t address any interim measures”.
Reducing speed limits are some “simple steps” that “would make a real difference,” Cllr Baker Bashua maintained. “I understand budgets are limited and there are many competing demands across the Municipal District,” she added.
Extending the footpath beyond Ballaghboy to Frank Healy Park is worth exploring so that funding steams open to sporting organisations could be utilised, Cllr Tommy Guilfoyle (SF) flagged.
Active Travel is another funding stream worth examining for the request, Cllr Paul Murphy (FG) maintained. “Health and safety of children has to be paramount”.
Recalling that he had a previous motion to bring footpaths to Bruach na hÁbhann, Cllr Pat Daly (FF) commented, “it should be extended to the halting site, it is too dangerous to have children walking on the road”. Cllr Tom O’Callaghan (FF) remarked, “We’ve the fastest growing economy in Europe but basic services like providing footpaths to help young children and families we are not doing”.
Responding to the councillors, Tiernan outlined, “We’re very cautious about temporary or partial measures which would create a false sense of security that it is safe to walk on that road, if we are doing something I’d like to do it right”. He said the extra few hundred metres to Frank Healy Park “is another couple of hundred thousand of euros, it is really expensive because of the necessity to purchase lands”.
Cllr Colleran Molloy told her successor as Mayor of the Ennis MD, Cllr Mary Howard (FG) that letting the proposer of a motion in to respond “is the normal procedure in how we run meetings” then asked if warning signs could be considered. “I don’t want to give anyone a false sense of security,” the senior engineer repeated.
