COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF TALLAGHT AREA COMMITTEE

Monday, May 23, 2022

QUESTION NO.

QUESTION: Councillor C. O'Connor

To ask the CEO if there has been any progress in respect of the School Street Project at St Mark's National Schools in Springfield and may we have a statement? Charlie O'Connor

REPLY:

The aim of the Active Travel School Zone project (previously referred to as the School Street project) within the county is to engage schools and their wider communities, in order to improve safety outside the school gate and to better support active travel modes on the journey to and from school. The project is supported by the National Transport Authority (NTA) and delivered by South Dublin County Council.

The Active Travel School Zone project for this Tallaght location went through a selection process at the Tallaght ACM in October 2020 at which St. Mark's Junior & Senior was selected to proceed as the pilot. This was further supported at full Council Meeting in November 2020 when the report on local locations was presented.

The NTA have recently approved the preliminary designs for the school, and agreed for SDCC to proceed to Section 38 consultation.

Elected members were notified of the commencment of this consultation process on Wednesday 20th April 2022 via Active Travel email.  The consultation commenced on 22nd April and was initially to run for a four week period until 20th May 2022.  It has recently been agreed to extend the consultation period for this project by another week , up to 27th May 2022.

The Council delivered school engagement workshops on the preliminary design W/C 25th April 2022 to secure feedback from key decision makers within the school community.  In addition, a consultation leaflet on the proposed scheme was delivered to residents and businesses in the vicinity of the school that are likely to be immediately impacted by the proposed scheme to provide them with an opportunity to note their observations and suggested changes. (See April leaflet attached)

There was also earlier direct liaison with pupils,parents, staff and the wider community (see attached feedback summary) which was gathered by M-Co on behalf of SDCC.