Council members anger over parking charges

A call from Thurles Independent Councillor Jim Ryan to review the current pay parking arrangements in place in the towns of Thurles, Templemore and Roscrea, with the view to increasing the length of free parking time available to shoppers, all year round, and in particular during the Christmas period, has received much support from members, but not much from officials.

Cllr Ryan tabled a Notice of Motion at the December meeting of the MDC held in Clonakenny this week and said that something had to be done for the town centres or else commercial rates will be lost as businesses will close down or leave.
In reference to other towns in the county, Cllr Ryan said that he could not understand how special arrangements could be introduced for the likes of Cahir and Tipperary town, but when it comes to Thurles, nothing could be done.

Cllr Ryan's Notice of Motion was seconded by Cllr Seamus Hanafin who said that a review of the parking charges in each district should be undertaken with the view to harmonising the rates - Cllr Micheal Lowry said that he understood that this harmonisation process had already been agreed by the council members.

Cllr Jim Ryan had been contacted by a number of business people in Thurles who stated that they would like to see a 30 minute free parking period, rather than the current 15 minute spell, which is quite short.

It was also pointed out that while Christmas arrangements have suggested that car parking in the Thurles public car parks is free during the December Saturdays, this is misleading as the traffic warden does not work on Saturdays and therefore no parking fines are being imposed.

Director of Services, Mr Marcus O'Connor told members that the parking charges debate is a complex one and that the main reason for introducing them was to ensure a turnover of parking spaces. Traders in Nenagh, he said, had refused free parking because they claim that if parking is free, people will come into the town and park all day long - there will be no turnover of parking spaces and therefore people will not be circulating as the traders would wish them to be.

Mr O'Connor, refuted the suggestion that harmonisation of parking charges across the county had been agreed and he also told members that any change to the status quo would have a big bearing on the budget and therefore could not be implemented.

“Different towns have different arrangements - that's just a fact and there was never an agreement to harmonise charges as far as I am aware,” Mr O'Connor said.