Parking still the main issue for most

DESPITE the best efforts of Kerry County Council and Tralee Chamber Alliance to convince them otherwise shoppers and business owners in Tralee are still adamant that there aren’t enough parking spaces in the town.

Parking – or rather the perceived lack of it – was the single biggest issue identified by the business people surveyed 67 per cent of whom said parking facilities in Tralee are poor.

Shoppers weren’t quite as critical but they still cited it as a major issue with 38 per cent criticising the town’s parking arrangements.

Parking was also identified as the single biggest area that could be improved in the town. 46 per cent of the business owners surveyed saying parking facilities should be improved.

That’s compared to 16 per cent who wanted to see the number of vacant units tackled and the five per cent who wanted to see more public events staged in the town.

Shoppers tended to agree though not by as large a margin. Parking was also the area that the majority (23 per cent) of surveyed shoppers want to see improved.

The widespread view that there aren’t enough parking spaces in the town would appear to fly in the face of the facts.

There are currently just over 3,000 parking spaces in Tralee which – according to the 2013 Tralee Transportation Strategy – should be more than enough to meet the town’s needs.

The problem appears to lie with drivers’ habits as most seem to prefer on street parking and tend to avoid car parks.

Of the 3,000 spaces in town the vast majority (2,050) are in surface and multi-storey car parks.

Multi- story car parks – of which Tralee has two – are particularly unpopular. Just over two thirds of respondents said they preferred to park in a surface car park as opposed to a multi-storey one.

It should also be noted that the Health Check survey was carried out before the removal off 66 on street parking spaces as part of the Mall and Denny St redevelopment works.

The perceived lack of parking in the town centre was one of the main issues identified in the survey. These parking spaces on the Mall have since been removed as part of the street’s revamp.