Brooke Park crossing meeting between councillors and Infrastructure Department
Residents' protest highlights road safety concerns
A site meeting has been held between representatives of the Department for Infrastructure and Derry City and Strabane District councillors regarding the provision of a safe pedestrian crossing into Brooke Park.
The meeting with councillors, Maeve O’Neill and Shaun Harkin (People Before Profit) took place at the Creggan Hill entrance to Marlborough Road.
Speaking to Derry Now, Cllr Maeve O’Neill said the meeting followed a protest held by local residents to highlight the road safety concerns at the crossing.
She added: “It also followed a motion passed at Council in May about action required to improve safety at this crossing.
"We are continuing to push for measures that will improve the safety of this crossing. People with disabilities, mobility aids, prams and young children, in particular, find this crossing dangerous.
“We held a meeting with local residents in July to inform them of the safety measures that are needed and in our meeting today we pushed for a drop kerb, a controlled pedestrian crossing and slow down, '20s plenty' signs around the school and park entrance.
"More needs to be done to ensure safe access to our schools and parks, not just on road safety but also on air quality.
“We are continuing to work with the Council to explore measures that will improve air quality as well as these road safety measures."
Cllr O’Neill’s motion on the crossing read: “Council notes the importance of safe pedestrian access to our local parks. This is inclusive of safety in road crossings as well as the air quality in the area surrounding the park.
“Council will convene a meeting with DFI and local community stakeholders to explore how to improve safe pedestrian access to Brooke Park crossing Creggan Hill from Marlborough Road.
“Council will present a paper on actions that can be taken to address the poor air quality in the areas surrounding Brooke Park and Bull Park, which will encompass improved air quality monitoring and green solutions.
"Council will utilise the learnings from this for safe access planning for all the parks in the Council district.”