Businesses in the centre of Tipperary's largest town are 'fighting for survival'

Four hours of free parking every day in Clonmel in the three weeks leading to Christmas has been requested by a local politician.

The request was made by Cllr Michael Murphy at a meeting of Clonmel Borough District.

He said that the four hours free parking could operate between 11am-3pm each day, in addition to the free parking that has operated for several years in council-owned car parks in Clonmel each Saturday during December. 

Cllr Murphy said that local businesses, the commercial rate payers, were in a very difficult position and were fighting for their very survival.

He appealed for parking incentives in the short term to assist these rate payers, who were in a perfect storm and whose resilience, ambition and motivation was being tested like never before.

He said that they needed to understand how difficult the trading environment is for businesses operating in the prime retail area of the town.

When he was told by District Manager Sinead Carr that such a measure would have to be budgeted for a year in advance, Cllr Murphy appealed for Ms Carr to approach Liam McCarthy, Tipperary County Council’s Head of Finance, and inquire if there were central funds available in the county to support his request for additional free parking in Clonmel in the weeks before Christmas.

“Somebody always has a few bob up their sleeve”, he said.

Cllr Murphy said that the free parking on Saturdays during December should be shrunken to the core shopping hours to prevent people parking for free all day, and maybe distribute some of those free parking times to other days. 

He said that in Nenagh there were three hours free parking every Saturday for 52 weeks of the year, and the rate payers in Nenagh and Thurles didn’t contribute to the cost of Christmas lights either.

In Clonmel, motorists only had free parking in the council-owned car parks each Saturday during December.

Cllr Murphy’s proposal was supported by Cllr Niall Dennehy.

District Manager Sinead Carr said there was no budget for four hours free parking each day in the three weeks before Christmas, and it wasn’t possible.

They needed to budget for free parking in November for the following year.

She said that sometimes the free parking on Saturdays during December, which the council had budgeted for and which would continue, was “a nightmare” for businesses and employers.

Some employees occupied parking spaces for the day and often there was no room for shoppers.

Because of that some businesses had asked for the measure to be discontinued, and for paid parking to be restored.

This year there were 250 additional parking spaces at Suir Island and 116 at Davis Road that weren’t available before Covid.

Ms Carr said 30 minutes free parking was available every day of the week in Clonmel in the Mary Street car park. Very few towns had such a measure, she stated. There was far greater use of the Mary Street car park because of that 30 minutes free slot.

Ms Carr said that the town’s car parking strategy  was working very well.