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Free Christmas parking scuppered
17.12.09
by Damian Dowds, Inishowen Independent
FREE parking will not now be introduced in Buncrana
after Cllr Michael Grant withdrew his motion at last
week's Council meeting, calling for fees to be
waived to boost Christmas trade.
Cllr Grant proposed that the parking charges be
waived after 12 noon on weekdays and Saturdays to
encourage more people to do business in the town in
the run-up to Christmas. While his fellow
councillors and officials approved of the spirit of
the motion, the fact that Buncrana’s parking by-laws
have no provision allowing them to be suspended
scuppered Cllr Grant’s plan. Town Clerk Seamus
Canning said that suspending the by-laws informally
could jeopardise legal action the council is taking
against fine evaders. A number of such cases are
expected to come before the District Court in the
New Year.
Councillors also expressed concern that suspending
the pay-and-display scheme would lead to a repeat of
the circumstances that caused them to be introduced
in the first place, namely, the unavailability of
car parking spaces for shoppers. |
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Proposing the motion,
Cllr Grant said that free Christmas parking had been
introduced in other towns and cities and that
Buncrana needed to do all it can to compete with
retailers in Derry. “Business depends on a good
Christmas period, and this would be a helpful and
worthwhile measure,” he said.
Town engineer Donal Walker said the council had no
mechanism to deliver a suspension under the existing
by-laws.
“It would depend on us giving off the record advice
to the traffic wardens and if we did it in such an |
unofficial manner it
could undermine potential prosecutions to be taken
against fine evaders,” he said.
“It may do more harm than good and we could end up
blocking the street and be back to where we were
before pay and display was introduced,” said Cllr
Daren Lalor.
Cllr Nicholas Crossan said that the Council needed
to tread carefully. He said that the Chamber of
Commerce had taken a neutral view on the proposal
and that business in the town had improved since the
measure was introduced late in 2007.
Cllr Michelle Bradley asked why the by laws were so
strict, and if a suspension could be put in place
for next Christmas.
“Could the by-laws be improved?” she asked, adding
that it would be worthwhile to consider offering one
hour free parking.
Certain retailers already offer to pay customers’
parking fees. Tierney’s Pharmacy on the Lower Main
Street, for example, offers the first hour’s paring
free to all customers upon presentation of their
parking ticket at the till.
Cllr Grant said that the last thing he wanted to do
was put the council in legal danger and he withdrew
the motion. |
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