By Dionne Meehan

THE manager of a community centre in Gaoth Dobhair has criticised Donegal County Council claiming her pleas for a pedestrian crossing have been ignored.

Caitríona Nic Gairbheith, who is the manager An Chrannóg, voiced her concerns after several frightening “near misses” involving children walking to the centre.

Situated on the main Stranacorka road in the parish, the centre sees up to 300 children pass through their doors weekly.

But, with the most recent accident occurring on their doorstep last Tuesday, Ms Nic Gairbheith said it is only a matter of time before someone gets seriously injured, or worse.

“Last Tuesday’s accident was the fifth car crash to occur, right outside our door, in my three years as manager,” she said.

“I think it is only a matter of time until there is a serious accident there, which is going to result in people getting seriously injured or worse.”

With a playground, gardening project and a housing estate all located opposite the centre, Ms Nic Gairbheith said all service users are at risk, not just children.

“There is an ongoing problem with speeding on that road,” she said.

“There is half a mile of straight road and people just tend to put their foot down.

“We have two gates in and out of our centre onto that same road, so there is a lot of risk there.”

Ms Nic Gairbheith has reached out to Donegal County Council seeking a pedestrian crossing on the road, but fears her requests have fallen on deaf ears.

“That was months and months ago, and we haven’t heard anything back from them,” she said.

“Since that, there has been a further two accidents, including the one last week.

“What we think is needed is a pedestrian crossing outside of the centre.

“As far as we can see, that would be the only way to keep those accessing our centre safe.”

Ms Nic Gairbheith believes Donegal County Council is not taking her concerns seriously.

“We have made them aware several times of the issues that we have and the concerns that we have for the risk, but we are not hearing back,” she said.

“We would like it to be sorted.

“People from the roads department have come out and met with us, and we have explained our concerns and showed them the incident reports that we have from near misses.

“We understand that there is only so much of a budget that the county council has, but if you are here on the ground day by day and you are seeing accidents happen, to the extent they are happening and the frequency that they are happening, it is really worrying for us.”