‘Absolute chaos’ in Waterford as school capacities lag behind population increases
The issue was raised at the September plenary meeting of Waterford City and County Council
There is “absolute chaos” in parts of Waterford as local school capacities lag behind population increases, a council meeting has heard.
The issue was raised by Sinn Féin councillor Pat Fitzgerald at the September plenary meeting of Waterford City and County Council.
Cllr Fitzgerald said: “I came across a lot of issues this year in back to school transport and shortage of places for pupils in schools.
“The particular area I’m talking about has been blessed with extra houses in the last two to three years.
“This is due to the hard work of the planning office but the Department of Education seems to have not caught up with the extra amount of school places we need.”
He outlined the issues this is having in the areas of school transport and roads maintenance.
“The school transport people have not caught up with the amount of extra school transport that we need and it causes absolute chaos.”
“We also have roads around particular areas that were small areas but are growing exponentially and the roads are not adequate for the amount of traffic that is now using these roads.”
Cllr Fitzgerald went on to ask whether the Department of Education is consulted when it comes to granting planning permission for new housing developments locally.
“I’m just wondering, if we have a planning application for 100 or 99 houses or whatever, how involved is the Department of Education in that application?
“How involved would say school transport and all these be? Are all these people notified of the consequences of putting a huge amount of extra houses into a small area?”
In response, Director of Services Ivan Grimes said that the Department of Education is not consulted as part of the planning process.
Mr Grimes stated: “The Department of Education is not a statutory consultee of planning permissions.
“The Department plans future school provision based on CSO census data.
“We do have regular engagements at senior level with the Department, identifying future growth areas and identifying, more importantly, potential sites for future schools.
“So we do engage with the Department of Education but they have no input into any individual planning application.”
He concluded by saying that there are certain bodies that the council is obliged to consult with.