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A forum to discuss traffic issues on New Road during busy school pick-up and drop off times is to be set up by Killarney Municipal District.

Traffic on New Road, which has over 2000 students and pupils attending St Brendan’s College and Killarney Community School, and two primary schools, The Mon and Holy Cross, as well as St Brigid’s Presentation school, has been a concern for years.

Currently no vehicles from Rock Road can turn onto New Road during peak school hours in the mornings and afternoons.

Cllr M Healy-Rae put forward a motion at Wednesday’s Council meeting asking if the new Rock Road car park could be used as a drop of point.

Cllr Niall ‘Botty’ O’Callaghan put forward a similar motion during the November meeting.

The Municipal District Manager of Killarney, Angela McAllen, said the Council had spoken to the principals of St Brendan’s and Presentation and that she also had discussions with An Garda Siochana, whose barracks are also located on the same road.

Town engineer John Ahern said he wants to engage school principals, students, gardai school bus operators and anyone else who needs to be involved in the consultation, but warned that there was not much the Council could do if motorists were already disobeying the one-way system that is in place at school times.

“We need a forum to solve this problem, if it is solvable,” he told the Killarney Municipal District meeting. “Motorists who turn left at these times are breaking the law but I cannot control that. We are doing our best but we need to sit down with the people involved.”

Cllr Grady asked if some sort of a path could be constructed from the Rock Road car park, towards to rear of the Garda Station that would lead out on to New Road.

“It is on the record that [when plans for Rock Road car park were being formulated] the engineer would include a walkway. We all agreed on that at the time.”