Primary school children from Roscam are being forced to cross the ‘dangerously busy’ Dublin Road as bollards installed on the Doughiska Road Active Travel Scheme have blocked their former drop-off point.

And while efforts to find an alternative by local Councillor Alan Cheevers (FF) have secured agreement for a drop-off and collection point in the grounds of Castlegar GAA, it remains to be seen if this will be acceptable to Bus Éireann.

Since yesterday (Thursday), children using the Bus Éireann school bus to get to Gaelscoil Dara are being picked up and dropped off at designated bus stops on the Dublin Road – at either side of the busy Doughiska junction.

Cllr Cheevers has called for a number of the bollards, which were installed in recent weeks to improve the safety of cycle lanes on the Doughiska Road, in order to facilitate the bus returning to its normal set-down area adjacent to Spar.

“Parents in Rosam are really angry about this and have serious health and safety concerns that their children will now be crossing the Dublin Road when they get off the bus,” he said.

The Active Travel Scheme, which created cycle lanes the length of Doughiska Road South (Roscam), was completed in 2023, but has been beset by issues with illegal parking on the cycle lanes since.

In April, Galway City Council installed plastic bollards along the full length of the route to prevent illegal parking and provide clear passage for cyclists and pedestrians.

However, the bollards have also prevented the school bus pulling in, and in a statement issued to parents this week, Bus Éireann confirmed that they were changing their arrangements from Thursday.

“Due to the new bollards recently erected marking the cycle lane on the Roscam Road, school transport service F6002 to Gaelscoil Dara will no longer pick-up or set-down pupils at this location. The new pick-up/set-down point for this service will be the bus stop on the Old Dublin Road,” it said.

In the interim, Cllr Cheevers put a request into Castlegar GAA for use of their car park and has been granted conditional agreement, pending confirmation that the City Council and Bus Éireann will provide indemnity through “public liability insurance” and confirm that it is a temporary measure.

Cllr Cheevers has also called on the Council to immediately remove enough bollards to rectify this issue, and to plan for the installation of a proper bus stop on Doughiska Road South.

“As part of the new bus network, there will be two bus routes along the road. I have a motion down for the next City East Area meeting calling on Galway City Council to work with the National Transport Authority to provide a designated pull-in bus stop for Roscam on South Doughiska Road,” said the Fianna Fáil councillor.

“I have said for a long time that when they were building the cycle lanes, it was madness that they didn’t provide bus stops along the road.

“The reality is that if they don’t get a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) for the area beside the shops, they will give to dig up everything that has been done again so this should have been done from the start,” said Cllr Cheevers.

Pictured: The bollards at Roscam, which prevent the school bus from dropping off local children.