Delivery of safe School Zone initiative in #DublinCentral

One of the important steps taken by Dublin City Council since the beginning of the pandemic, was to introduce measures to enhance and improve mobility and accessibility across the city. As part of that, steps were taken to introduce new safe School Zones to encourage vehicles to slow down, discourage drop off and pick up to reduce congestion and increase safety at school gates.

Across Dublin Central, there are 31 national schools that have been written to by the Engineering and Transportation Department of Dublin City Council inviting them to take part in the scheme, of which all have applied to become a school zone. These schools include:

No.	School name	School address
1	St Vincent’s Infant Boys School	North William street Dublin 1 D01AV50
2	St Patrick’s BNS	Millbourne Avenue
3	ST. Catherine’s Senior School	Ratoath road, Cabra West, Dublin 7 D07 V045
4	Dublin 7 Educate Together	Fitzwilliam Place North, Grangegorman Lower, Dublin 7D07PY50
5	Christ the King Junior GNS	Annaly Road, Cabra, D7.
6	Gardiner St School	76 Upper Gardiner Street, D.1
7	Casa Caterina School	Dominican Campus, Ratoath Road, Cabra, Dublin 7, D07 YY30
8	Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire	4 Parnell Square East, Dublin 1, D01 WC99
9	St. Columba’s NS	Iona Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 9    D09T9X0
10	Lindsay Road National School	Lindsay Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 9, D09YH93
11	St Vincent’s Girls School	North William St Dublin 1
12	St John Bosco’s SBS (Roll no 17912O)	Navan Road, Dublin 7
13	Mary Help of Christians GNS	Navan Road, Dublin 7, D07 EH68
14	St Mary’s Primary School	St Mary’s Place, Upper Dorset Street, Dublin 7 D07 HF10
15	George’s Hill PPS	Halston Street , Dublin 7 YS43
16	Broombridge ETNS	Bannow Road, Cabra, Dublin 7 D07TD93
17	St. Peter’s N.S.	St. Peter’s Road, Phibsboro, Dublin 7 (D07F75C)
18	Christ the King BNS	Annaly Road, Cabra, Dublin 7 D07EF63
19	Holy Child NS	Larkhill Road, Whitehall, Dublin 9 D09K104
20	Holy Child Boys NS	Larkhill Road, Whitehall, Dublin 9 D09K104
21	Scoil Mobhí	Bóthar Mobhí, Glasnaíon, BÁC 9 D09A303
22	St. Paul’s Primary School	North Brunswick Street, Dublin 7
23	Rutland National School	Rutland National School, Lower Gloucester Place, Dublin 1
24	Mother of Divine Grace School	Ferndale Avenue, Ballygall, Dublin 11 (D11VW68)
25	Stanhope Street Primary School	Manor Street Dublin 7 D07DY60
26	St Vincent’s	St Vincent’s primary school, St. Philomena’s road, Glasnevin, Dublin 11.
27	Grace Park ETNS	DCU All Hallows Campus, Grace Park road, Drumcondra, Dublin 9. D09 KDW4
28	Gaelscoil Bharra	Fassaugh Ave, Cabra, Dublin 7
29	Glasnevin Educate Together National School	Griffith Avenue Glasnevin D11 A2YT
30	O Connell Primary	North Richmond St, Dublin 1
31	Central Model School	Deverell Place, Dublin 1

9 School Zones have been installed to date, including:

• Central Model School, Deverell Place, Dublin 1.
• St Vincent’s Infant Boys School, William Street North
• St Patricks Boys NS, Millbourne Avenue, Drumcondra, Dublin 9.
• Christ The King GNS, Annaly Road, Cabra, Dublin 7.
• Christ The King BNS, Annaly Road, Cabra, Dublin 7.
• Gaelscoil Bharra, Faussagh Avenue, Cabra West, Dublin 7.
• St Vincent’s GNS, Williams Street North, Dublin 1.
• St Mary’s Primary School, Paradise Place Phibsborough, Dublin 7.
• St Peters National School, Phibsborough, Dublin 7.

School communities have been in touch with me seeking clarity as to the process upon which a safe School Zone is delivered. I have simplified the process below so if your children’s school has applied to take part, you can establish the steps that have been undertaken and remain in order for the school zone to be installed.

So the steps to be completed, include:

• The school Principal applies to have a School Zone installed through our online consultation hub. https://consultation.dublincity.ie/traffic-and-transport/1cf2bdad/. School Zone designs are only suitable on local and residential roads and must have support from the school, the parents and local residents.

• The School Principal is encouraged to carry out consultations within the local community and to work collaboratively with the school and local community to gain the best possible outcome from the School Zone installation. This process is supported by the Schools Outreach Officers and in some cases An Taisce’s Green-School Programme Officers. 

• Site observation visits from Technical staff and School Mobility Officers are conducted for all schools who have applied. This is followed by a final design and funding approval process by the NTA in consultation with Dublin City Council.

• The final design is sent to the school Principal so that they can inform the school community and local community of the design and the planned installation of the school zone.

Once the school has accepted the final design, the School Zone is installed, and its success is evaluated over time.

If you have any questions about the safe School Zone process, whether your kids’ school has applied or what it has to do in order to advance an application, please get in touch with me at RayMcAdam@gmail.com.