Tipperary schoolchildren left stranded after roadworks block bus route
Schoolchildren in Tipperary were left stranded on the side of the road recently due to a miscommunication between their school bus operator and a contractor carrying out roadworks in the county.
At the March meeting of the Tipperary-Cahir-Cashel Municipal District, independent councillor Máirín McGrath raised the issue which she said had never happened before.
"At about 8.05am, a school bus wasn’t allowed through [a set of roadworks], the bus company couldn’t get through to pick up the kids on the other side. That had a knock-on impact on those kids getting to school, and parents ringing, so it’s not fair,” she said.
"I think we need to make it clear with the contractors. The works hadn’t commenced that morning, and still they wouldn’t allow the bus to go through. We have to facilitate things like that.
"I don’t know whose responsibility it is, but if we could talk to the contractor about that and to advise them that those kinds of things have to be allowed to happen because kids are left stranded on the side of the road, and that’s not good enough,” Cllr McGrath said.
In response, engineer for the district James Swords said contractors not allowing school buses to pass “shouldn’t have happened.”
"That shouldn’t have happened, to be honest, we have enough going on and we do get traffic management plans done in advance of the works, but it shouldn’t happen. I’ll talk to the lads – I think I know what area you’re talking about – so I’ll talk to the contractors," Mr Swords said.