{"id":522101,"date":"2026-06-28T03:20:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T03:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/522101\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T03:20:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T03:20:16","slug":"children-at-north-cork-school-at-risk-from-cars-using-motorway-slip-road-claims-councillor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/522101\/","title":{"rendered":"Children at North Cork school at risk from cars using motorway slip road, claims councillor\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"contextmenu internal_Body1st\">Schoolchildren studying just metres from a Cork motorway exit are being put at risk because the slip road leading almost to their front door has an 80km\/h speed limit, a local councillor has claimed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Concerns have been raised about the safety of children attending the national school in Watergrasshill, particularly as a large volume of HGVs and cars pass the school daily to avoid paying the nearby toll on the M8 motorway.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">A 2023 traffic survey showed that more than 3,000 vehicles pass the school each day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Watergrasshill-based Fianna F\u00e1il councillor Sheila O\u2019Callaghan raised the issue at a meeting of Cobh Municipal District Council.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">She said the speed of vehicles coming off the motorway slip roads adjacent to the national school is \u201cawful\u201d and that the local garda is working to help protect pupils.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">Carried out works<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\"><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.echolive.ie\/corknews\/arid-41866407.html\">Cork County Council<\/a>, in conjunction with the National Roads Authority, carried out works on the western side of the school, the side closest to the motorway. A pedestrian crossing with traffic lights was installed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cThis pedestrian crossing is not a raised ramp and does not slow the traffic other than when it turns red,\u201d Ms O\u2019Callaghan said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">In a statement council engineers said: \u201cCork County Council will continue to monitor traffic speeds in the vicinity of Watergrasshill National School.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cShould the recorded speeds indicate non-compliance with speed limits, the council will consider the reinstallation of a driver feedback sign or other appropriate measures to enhance driver awareness, particularly in relation to school traffic and pedestrian safety.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">They said they would report back to councillors with the findings of the speed surveys.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Schoolchildren studying just metres from a Cork motorway exit are being put at risk because the slip road&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[79,34581,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-522101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-cork-news","tag-cork-traffic","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}