CONTROVERSY OVER PARKING CHARGES AT THE MARSHES CENTRE
TOWN COUNCIL SAYS IT HAD NO ROLE IN SETTING THE RATE AT NEW SHOPPING DEVELOPMENT
Controversy emerges over parking charges at the Marshes shopping centre, with Dundalk town council denying it had any role in setting the rate.
Management at the new centre on The Ramparts which opened in November have spoken for the first time about the issue which has been the subject of considerable debate.
Manager, Harry Traynor, explains that the developers are aware that the parking charges are an issue.
However, he adds, this has been taken into account and two reviews of parking charges have already been carried out.
‘Discussions have been ongoing. It is expected that the charges will be reviewed again very soon.’
Mr Traynor does not rule out the possibility that the charges could be set even lower than the €1 per-hour it costs to park in the town centre.
He points out that setting a charge for parking was a condition in the council’s planning permission requirements, but that the developers independently set the actual rate.
The manager defends the decision to continue to apply parking charges in the evening and on Sundays, saying: ‘ This is a very significant private investment. It is a brand new shopping centre, and it has to pay for itself.’
He adds that other shops in the town centre are closed in the evening, whereas the Marshes is open to 9pm every weekday in the run up to Christmas.
‘Other car parks operating in the town after 6pm are monitored. We also have to pay to provide secure parking for our customers, and to have the car park maintained on a twenty-four-hour basis.’
Mr Traynor says he had looked at a number of other centres, and charges apply in many. Some allow free parking for three hours with significant fines applied thereafter.
There are special reduced rates for Marshes staff.
At a meeting of the town council, members are keen to emphasise that they did not have any role in setting the charges and have no control over the matter.
The council did insert a clause in the planning permission granted to the Marshes that ‘a car parking management plan shall be submitted to the planning authority for approval. The management plan shall provide for parking pricing structures in order to provide for a co-ordinated parking policy in Dundalk town centre’.
‘As the Marshes is a private car park, they are entitled to set their own charges and the council does not have any control over same,’ says town clerk Frank Pentony.
At the meeting, chairman Cllr Martin Bellew remarks it is very unfair for parking charges to still apply at twoand three-o-clock in the morning, with Dunnes Stores open 24 hours.
He says he had raised the question of the Marshes charging for parking in the evening and on Sundays, when parking in the town centre is free.
Mr Pentony explains that the Marshes management had come to him with a suggestion of putting the charges at the same rate as the town centre, so as to avoid complaints from other shopkeepers; but he emphasises that the council did not advise on the pay parking charges.