MORE than 300 parents and locals have signed a petition calling for a pedestrian crossing at a Cork city primary school, with some describing the current situation at school drop off and collection time as “treacherous”.

The online petition, which received over 200 signatures in 24 hours, calls for Cork City Council to “urgently” address the need for a pedestrian crossing at Scoil Padre Pio.

It states that there is currently no safe crossing point from Colmcille Road to the primary school or Gerry O’Sullivan Park.

Triona Dunlea set up the petition last week along with fellow parents of Social Padre Pio pupils, Christine Moynihan and Gwen Fitzpatrick-Goulding.

Speaking to The Echo, Ms Dunlea said that while her son is in senior infants, Ms Moynihan, Ms Fitzpatrick-Gouldling along with other parents, have been raising the matter for some time.

Currently, in order to access the school and the park, Ms Dunlea said that parents and locals have to use a busy crossroad.

“And then obviously, parents are parked down at the corner, so the sightlines are so bad. There’s kids trying to cross between cars, there’s mothers with buggies, older people trying to access the park – it’s really, really dangerous there,” she said.

“It is treacherous, and I suppose the morning time is the worst, because everyone is trying to get somewhere.” While the road does have traffic calming measures, Ms Dunlea reiterated the need for the pedestrian crossing.

She said it is important that the crossing is introduced soon and while there are just a few weeks left of the school year, the park is used every day.

Cllr Kenneth Collins said that there is a lot of traffic and trucks are on the road, describing it as “very busy”.

He said that the issue has been raised in the past and that funding has been a problem though he described the introduction of a crossing on a busy road as invaluable.

Cllr Kenneth Collins and Cllr Mick Nugent have co-signed a motion for the pedestrian crossing to be implemented, stating that it would be of benefit to both local residents and those attending the school.

The petition is available here