Extra wardens will make school crossings far safer

THE principal of a city centre primary school campaigning for a school traffic warden is “cautiously optimistic” following budgetary allocation by Cork City Council for additional wardens.

Cork Educate Together NS (CETNS) on Grattan Street has been campaigning for several years for a school traffic warden, with the school’s principal, Maura O’Riordan, saying she fears for the safety of young students crossing the busy city centre road unaided.

Earlier this year, Ms O’Riordan warned that it might be “only a matter of time before something terrible happens”.

She said her school had repeatedly applied for a warden, but Cork City Council had declined the request due to lack of funds.

“Grattan Street is an extremely busy city-centre thoroughfare and every day we have to battle with high volumes of traffic, with children being forced to run the gauntlet to get to school,” Ms O’Riordan said.

“We have a pedestrian crossing outside the school but, by giving us the illusion of safety, it is in fact making us far more unsafe. Every day we have children getting half-way across when they are met with oncoming traffic, travelling at speed to get the lights.”

A spokesperson for Cork City Council told The Echo in April that school warden locations were selected historically and had remained unchanged for several years, with no extra funding available.

“Cork City Council [has] a fixed number of school warden posts and unfortunately all these posts are already deployed to schools across the city,” the spokesperson said. “[Any] requests for such a service are recorded and will be assessed and prioritised in the event that additional resources become available to fund additional school warden positions.”

Cork City Council approved its 2023 budget in recent days and Green Party councillor Dan Boyle confirmed that extra funding was allocated for school wardens.

He said it will “allow for an additional two wardens to be taken on during the course of the year”.

Ms O’Riordan said the school was cautiously optimistic that, with additional funding now in place, its application would be looked upon favourably.

“We’re extremely grateful that the city council came and heard us and they have put additional funding in place, and now we apply again, and we do so in the hope that we are successful,” Ms O’Riordan said.

Cllr Boyle told The Echo that he believed that CETNS had a strong case to be high on the list of schools which need a traffic warden.

“I would say the case that Educate Together has is better than others who are seeking school wardens,” Mr Boyle said.

An assessment of Grattan Street, carried out by Cork City Council last November, recommended a number of short-term measures, costing an estimated €12,000.

These recommendations included the removal of a set-down area outside the school and the erection of bollards to prevent cars from parking outside the school, the replacement of the current flashing amber lights with brighter LED lights, and the repainting of the zebra crossing. The set-down area was removed in April, with bollards erected, and the zebra crossing was repainted.

The report also contained a number of long-term recommendations, costing an estimated €50,000, including the building-out of the pavement and the installation of a raised zebra crossing.

Cllr Boyle said proposals for this work would go to a public consultation in the coming weeks.

“I would be hugely optimistic of what’s going to happen after that consultation,” he said.