‘Dingle badly needs parking’
WEST Kerry-based Councillor Seamus ‘Cosaí’ Mac Gearailt said that a lack of car-parking spaces has long been a cause of frustration in Dingle, and he hopes a project providing an additional 75 spaces will get underway in the spring and go a long way to solving the problem.
Kerry County Council (KCC) hopes to enhance St Mary’s car park on Green Street and extend it towards the west after a recent agreement with St Brendan’s Trust for the long-term lease of the car park and adjacent lands.
Traffic congestion and a lack of parking can be particularly problematic in the centre of the busy tourist town during the summer season, weekends, and Mass times, and Councillor Mac Gearailt said the issues have been brought to him on a regular basis.
“These spaces will be very welcome and it’s something people are coming to me about constantly; it’s something Dingle town centre needs badly,” he said.
“It’s very frustrating having to do two or three laps of the town to get parking, and the problem is particularly bad on Green Street. We’ve been working with St Brendan’s Trust for two, three years now, and I’d like to thank them for their help on this project.”
The proposed works also provide for pedestrian access; enhancing and re-surfacing of the existing car park next to St Mary’s Church; and associated ancillary and accommodation works.
It is also hoped to widen the car park’s existing entrance to accommodate two-way traffic with the removal of a small section of the boundary walls of St Mary’s Church, within a designated Architectural Conservation Area. An Architectural Heritage Impact Assessment Report said that work is acceptable and suggested using the stone elsewhere in the development as a feature. An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is not required, and no likely significant effects on habitats were identified.
Plans of the proposal will be displayed in Dingle and County offices until January 11, 2018, the closing date for submissions.