'An accident waiting to happen'.. Construction works in Dunboyne village causing concern

A Ratoath Municipal District councillor said construction works in Dunboyne village is forcing children and families access the local church car park through the vehicle entrance.

Cllr Maria Murphy raised the issue of St Peter and Paul’s Church having the pedestrian entrance to the church closed off to facilitate works on a new mixed use development and parking facility.

The plans include construction of a foodstore, café, ESB substation building and overflow car parking for 119 cars and all associated site works and services.

Cllr Maria Murphy said “I have never seen anything like it” in her 15 years as a councillor and “it is basically an accident waiting to happen”.

The developer closed the pedestrian entrances into the church car park “which means that the children and families accessing the school and church services from that direction have to walk in through the vehicle entrance,” Cllr Murphy said.

She said this has created a hazard which has been further exacerbated by what she claimed was a with the lack of traffic management. Construction vehicles have been occupying the car park spaces, making it even more hazardous for those forced to walk through the vehicle entrance. This has also greatly reduced the number of available parking spaces for the time being as a car park beside the church is part of the construction site making it unavailable.

“We only have the church car park itself and the new car park at the back and both are being used by multiple amounts of construction vehicles”.