Children at a Donegal primary school will start lessons for 2014 with a death trap outside their school – despite repeated appeals by parents to rectify it.
No sign of new traffic lights outside Gleneely National School.
Concerned parents at Gleneely National School in Killygordan have been without traffic lights outside their school since the summer.
The lights developed a fault a number of months ago and were taken away for repair but have still not been returned.
The issue was again raised in December but the lights have still not been returned as pupils begin lessons for 2014 today.
One parent who contacted Donegal Daily said the matter can be sorted by Donegal County Council for a few euro but nothing has been done about it.
“If a child is killed outside the school then Donegal County Council will have this hanging over them.
“It is a disgrace that months after the lights were removed and weeks after we highlighted it, nothing has been done.
“Will it take serious injury to a child or even something worse for the council to sit up and do the decent thing,” asked the parent.
Local county councillor Gary Doherty has raised the issue and says the council must be embarrassed by the lack of action.
The Sinn Fein councillor said “This school is on a busy back road which connects large area of Aghyaran with the Finn Valley. Cars have a tendency to go past the school at a dangerous rate, and there is a real danger here now that the traffic lights are out of action.
“Parents and staff of the school are very anxious to have the lights repaired as soon as possible.”
He added that Donegal County Council are aware of the issue here as they came and took the lights away for repair a number of months ago.
“However they haven’t been seen since. That is a cause of embarrassment to the Council and I would call on them to take urgent action to address this issue.
“Our children’s safety is not an issue we can take lightly and we need to be proactive to prevent a tragedy occurring here, especially now in the dark evenings.”