New road layout deemed to be like a ‘racing track’

New road layout deemed to be like a ‘racing track’

By Brendan Grehan

CONCERNS over heavy and speeding traffic on the redesigned layout for Cookstown Road adjacent to the playing fields of St Mark’s GAA Club has led their Chairman Neil Ussher to describe the layout as “a racing track”.

Mr Ussher said: “There is not one ramp or traffic light on it. It is going to be like a racing track.”

Mr Ussher and local politicians have called for South Dublin County Council to install a higher boundary or netting to prevent balls and sliothars from the playing pitches going onto the road.

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Mr Ussher told The Echo that it was “a health and safety issue”. He said: “There is a lot of concern among local residents and club members when the road opens. It will be very easy for a child to run out onto the road.

“Before, vandals used to use timber and drive over the boundary onto the pitches. We had a car burnt out on our camogie pitch last year.”

Mr Ussher said that SDCC should build a proper boundary. He said: “We need a proper boundary fence. There is not one ramp or traffic light on the road. It is going to be like a racing track. We have 300 members in our juvenile section. It is a health and safety issue.”

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Local councillor, Charlie O’Connor, told The Echo that he had concerns about the boundaries on the road.

He said: “My big concern now would be the boundary treatments on the re-aligned Cookstown Road which will be a busy road that is beside the football pitches there.

“There is a strong view among local residents that the boundary treatment is not strong enough. All they have put up so far is a short wall.

“It would be very easy for a ball to go out onto the road and for a child to follow it to retrieve it. Before they re-open the road, they need to look at this.”

Cllr O’Connor also told The Echo that SDCC had confirmed to him that the nearby Pairc Na Gréine apartment complex will be in the electoral area of Tallaght South and not Tallaght Central.

Another local politician, Cllr Dermot Richardson, has called on SDCC to provide safety netting at the boundary with the GAA club in light of the new road layout.

He said: “There is a serious health and safety risk with the new road layout as the pitches are closer to the new road layout and when games will take place on the pitch there is a risk for footballs and sliothars hitting cars or people in the area.”

He added: “ A curtain netting behind the goal will stop this happening .This should happen as soon as possible as the new road layout is ready and will be open soon .”

South Dublin County Council did not respond to queries from The Echo before we went to print.

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