Traffic calming measures are urgently needed near Goleen National School, according to a Cork County councillor.

Social Democrats councillor Ross O’Connell put forward a motion at a recent meeting of West Cork Municipal District, held for the first time in Goleen village.

“I brought a motion calling on the council to put in place adequate traffic calming road markings for Goleen National School,” said Mr O’Connell.

“I have been working together with Goleen Parents Association to get this now for the past few months.

“Frustratingly, many sat nav systems take traffic bound for Mizen Head and Barleycove Beach up this road by the school, instead of the safer south road past the old garda station.

“This is of course putting the safety of school children, and the parents who collect them and drop them off, in jeopardy, as a large volume of traffic speeds past the school on an ongoing basis.

“The road markings I called for are already in place at both Schull and Ballydehob national schools and I argued that there can be no good reason why we can’t have them for Goleen," he added. 

The ‘good news’ in response to the motion is that the local area engineer has agreed that such road markings would be appropriate for the school and will put them in place once a contractor has been secured, Cllr O'Connell revealed.

“Thank you to the engineers and to the other councillors for supporting this motion and making the journey west for the meeting,” he concluded.