Chaos follows Rowe St. car park closure

October 1992

The car parking situation in Wexford town has become farcical following the closure of Rowe Street church yard to the public.

The loss of the spaces has led to absolute chaos, particularly in the nearby Friary, where people bringing their cars to work are trying to cram in to avoid paying the parking charges in other car parks.

The Friary and Rowe Street church yards were the two most popular in town for both the workers and some shoppers coming in, as they were free.

However, now those who used to use Rowe Street have transferred to The Friary and the situation is so bad that even if you were lucky enough to get your car in in the morning, there is no way you could get it out again until the evening because of the indiscriminate way in which other motorists are parking.

Rowe Street closed so that the grounds can be prepared for the controversial new pay-parking system which the church authorities are introducing.

With this absolutely crazy situation there are fears that people might think twice about coming to Wexford to do business because they will have difficulty in getting parking.

However, according to Town Clerk Don Curtin, there is plenty of free car parking space in Bride Street church, and workers should go there instead of clogging up the centre of town car parks.

‘Long-term parkers should utilise these spaces as they are only a few minutes from anywhere. Walking is the healthy option and people shouldn’t mind it,’ he said.

‘Employers and employees should use these spaces in order to leave the town centre spaces available for customers,’ he added.

‘If people go to Dublin, they don’t mind paying for parking and having to walk for maybe half an hour from their car. But just ten minutes’ walk in Wexford will bring you from one side of town to the other.’