Carrick-on-Suir Main Street parking action group requests Council to accept petition

The action group opposing plans to permanently remove 27 parking spaces from Carrick-on-Suir’s Main Street has requested Carrick-on-Suir Municipal District’s Cathaoirleach to accept its petition of approximately 6,000 names supporting the cause before the District’s December meeting.

The Main Street Business Initiative (MBI) submitted the request to Cllr Mark Fitzgerald on Tuesday, November 27 just days after the controversy over the proposed reduction of the street’s parking spaces as part of a Carrick-on-Suir Regeneration Scheme facelift of the town centre was the subject of a heated debate at the November meeting of the Municipal District’s councillors. 

The group that comprises a mix of traders, property owners and residents of Main Street and some adjoining streets, also wrote to outgoing Minister for Rural & Community Development Heather Humphreys last week complaining about the debate and also requesting her to intervene in the dispute to help “find a conciliatory solution” and to request the Council to resume engagement with the group.

And the MBI submitted a complaint to the Public Services Ombudsman regarding the Council’s handling of the controversy.

This complaint follows on from complaints the MBI lodged to the Department of Rural & Community Development, Office of the Planning Regulator and Southern Regional Assembly regarding the Carrick Regeneration Scheme funding application and planning process.

Bobby Fitzgerald of the MBI told The Nationalist the action group isn’t interested in stopping funding for the town and only wants to get a solution to the parking problem facing traders and residents on Main Street.

He pointed out the group will withdraw its complaints if a compromise solution can be reached.

These conciliatory comments follow a statement the MBI issued on Monday, November 25 in response to the motion passed at Carrick Municipal District’s monthly meeting on November 22.

The motion called on all the District’s councillors to support the delivery of Carrick Regeneration Scheme in its entirety and to continue to support and work with the Municipal District to seek additional funding for both the town and district.

The MBI said the need for this motion to be passed only added “credibility and validity” to the complaints the group had lodged.

“No matter what the local authority and elected members endeavour to change now about past actions and behaviour in connection with the Rural Renewal Development Funding for the town, all established facts contained in the complaints remain unaltered. All events known to have occurred have occurred and all wrongs remain unchanged.”

The MBI called on Carrick Municipal District’s Director of Services Brian Beck to “step aside” from involvement in the complaints processes.

The statement went onto say: “We are confident that if the complaints are dealt with in a fair and objective manner that they will be upheld.”

Carrick Municipal District said it noted the MBI’s statement and was aware a number of complaints were lodged by the group to different organisations.

The Council said it was not not aware of the contents of these complaints as no copies have been provided to it.

It said it remained committed to engaging with relevant organisations in their consideration of these complaints, while minimising any impact on the delivery of its services.

The Council statement didn’t comment on the MBI’s request for the Director of Services to step aside from the complaints processes.