Only in Ireland would you find a college with thousands of students beside a main road, across which lies a popular pub, and no pedestrian crossing. This is the situation which has long faced Athlone IT. Despite a series of accidents, none of which has been fatal thankfully, no crossing has been put in place.

The students' union in Athlone has been agitating since last June to have a crossing put in place. On one occasion, three students were arrested after a sit-down protest, despite what union president Michael Yeates terms the "full support" of local gardai. Another protest saw more than 1,000 students march to Westmeath County Council offices in Athlone; there was also a "lollypop" protest, with stewards as crossing guards for students crossing the road.

While the council has now accepted the need for a crossing, there still remains the question of who will pay for it. Planning permission for a crossing, the precise location of which is still to be decided, has been given as part of an expansion of the IT. But a council roads official said the obligation to build and pay for it was the college's. "In the normal course of events we would put planning conditions on a developer and we wouldn't be in the business of paying for it ourselves," the official said.

Yeates described this attitude as "pathetic. They are treating us like a private-sector factory, making money. We aren't a factory, we're a college."