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The Lord Mayor of Cork City, Cllr Deirdre Forde, presented the Parents Association of Beaumont Girls National School and Scoil Barra Naofa Buachaillí with the Road Safety Authority’s Leading LightsAward to acknowledge their efforts and achievements in relation to making their school a safer place.

With the assistance of Cork City Council’s Sustainable Travel and Road Safety Awareness Officer, Frank Fitzgerald, the Parent’s Association, with the help of the teachers, identified areas of traffic congestion around the school, which were a potential danger for the students. By working with residents and Cork City Council, the schools were able to close off the road outside the campus to vehicular traffic during school drop-off and pick-up times.

The Association then set about encouraging parents to park at a distance from the school, resulting in a safer area in the vicinity of the school and the benefit of the children getting fresh air and exercise as they walked to school. This was further developed by introducing a cycle bus, where parents and children gathered at a pre agreed spot and cycled to school together. The hope is that more parents and children will look at sustainable methods of travelling to school for the future.

The Lord Mayor said:

Congratulations to Beaumont parents, teachers and pupils. This school has really have shown how parents, teachers, pupils, residents and the Council can all work together to improve road safety. They set about introducing measures that not only help keep people safer but also promote the use of healthier travel modes for students.

Mr. Fitzgerald commented:

The school’s campus is in a mature part of the city and was not constructed to deal with the level of today’s traffic. It is great to see the effort put in by the Parents Association being rewarded. It was a pleasure to work with the group in achieving a more sustainable and safer route to school.

Rosie Hogan from the Parents Association said:

We are delighted with what we have achieved as a school community. We are seeing more and more children cycling, walking, scooting to school than ever before. Such a strong school community engagement has been the cornerstone of this initiative and will ensure its continued success”.