Bothar Brugha area could be swamped with all day parking
Residents need to read plan at Fair Street office
THE details of the Hospital Impact Zone Amendment pay parking proposals are well worth checking out if you are a resident in any part of north Drogheda, especially, Windmill Road, Boyle O’Reilly, Hardman’s Gardens, Bothar Brugha, Church Street, etc. The detail is pretty simple.
For years, residents on the Windmill Road have suffered terrible problems with parking, unable to even pull up, never mind park, outside their own homes.
In a bid to tackle that, a proposal was made.
The east side of the street will become ‘Residents Only Parking’ and that’s a good thing. You will need a permit of course to say you live on the street. Parking at this location is prohibited for vehicles not displaying such a Residents’ Parking Permit specific to this location.
However, that creates other issues. The proposal is that the parking fee on the remainder of the street will be:
€2.00 per hour, or any part thereof, for the first 3 hours of parking (amounting to €6.00 for the first 3 hours of parking);
€1.50 per hour, or any part thereof, for each of hours 4, 5 and 6 of parking (amounting to €10.50 for the first 6 hours of parking);
€0.75 per hour, or any part thereof, for each of hours 7, 8, and 9 of parking, (amounting to €12.75 for 9 hours of parking or all-day parking during the Charging Hours).
And those sames prices will now also apply to the area at Boyle O’Reilly, because there were fears that the problem would just ‘shift’ to that location.
That seems pretty harsh on the residents there - and their families - facing a unique price hike compared to the rest of the town.
Of course, the biggest losers could be those living on Bothar Brugha, which has free parking at the moment.
If people don’t want to pay the high prices on the Windmill Road and Boyle O’Reilly, they’ll simply turn into Bothar Brugha and take all the free spaces there.
With the two schools on the street, it’s busy at key times anyway, but with no parking, that will be chronic.
The proposed byelaws will be available for public inspection during normal office hours until Tuesday 26th February, 2019 at the offices of Louth County Council, Fair Street.
Representation may be made in writing to The Municipal District Members of the Borough District in relation to the Draft Bye-Laws until 13th March, 2019.
These Bye-Laws shall come into operation on the 13th May, 2019
I feel the Residents Only area on Windmill Road is badly needed and must be affirmed. But the other issues must be tackled. Surely getting all those that visit the hospital to park in the huge hospital car park at Crosslanes - and not on the footpath opposite the cemetery or on the path at Moneymore - is the answer to all of this.
Hospital authorities and the council must continue to talk and bargain on this - in relation to affordable parking - for the sake of the entire community. Otherwise, we are just spreading the problem out, rather than fixing it at source.