Traffic plan to make Community Centre campus safer

Centre manager Enda O'Neill and Cllr Tracey O'Dwyer.

A €17,000 traffic management plan has been prepared for the Kilcullen Community Centre to improve safety for all who walk, cycle or drive around the campus, writes Brian Byrne.

Initiated by the previous manager Claire Crawford, current manager Enda O'Neill now has the plan fully developed and ready for implementation. He expects to get the work under way at the start of the new year.

A specialist traffic management firm has been brought in to assess the need. First works will involve repairs to the parking area surface around the centre and then to mark it out for safe use. There will also be extra space for parking for people who use wheelchairs.

Funding for the work has been helped by a €5,000 donation from Cllr Tracey O'Dwyer's councillor's discretionary allocation from LPT funds, which she committed earlier in the year.

Cllr O'Dwyer also recently committed the remainder of her funds to a pedestrian bridge across Pinkeen Stream which will facilitate safe crossing by hundreds of children and adults each day. At the moment, an unofficial crossing point represents considerable potential danger to users.

"The traffic management plan is taking cognisance of the bridge project, so that the two projects will fit together," says Enda O'Neill. "One of my main worries since I took over as management has been the volume of children who come through here every day, going to and from schools and the town."

The new arrangement will also include a pedestrian walkway from the main Centre building up along by other buildings to provide safe access to the All-Weather and soccer pitches.

Cllr O'Dwyer noted that the project is important for more than the Community Centre. "This area actually serves the whole town," she says. "Every child in town has reason at some stage to come up around here, whether for sport, schools or the two creches on the campus." 

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