Traders dig in against car park charges
July 1988
ARKLOW Traders Association is preparing for battle with the local Council over the introduction of parking charges in the two car parks. Pay and display parking came into force in the car-parks last week amid claims by the Traders Association that it would drive shoppers out of the town.
Legal advice is now being sought by the Traders Association to see what type of action they are entitled to mount under the law in opposition to these charges.
A campaign of withholding rates is one of the items on the agenda but the Association is also considering a number of different options at the moment.
But while the town traders complain bitterly about the loss of business through the new parking restrictions, the Council has been rolling in the money all last week.
In the region of £200 was taken in by the Council in charges in the two-week, while a further £500 worth of tickets for illegal parking on the Main Street were issued by the new traffic by the new traffic warden Sean Flood. At a meeting in the Royal Hotel last Thursday night, leader of the Traders Association got united backing from members for their campaign of opposition to the new parking charges in the car parks. The Association is not opposed to the enforcement of the one-hour parking restriction on the Main Street itself, which has had the effect of removing all but one of the street traders in the past week. Fish merchant Billy Murrary is the only street trader remaining on the Main Street, but he has had to remove his van so as to avoic infringing the one hour parking rule.
Meanwhile Traders Association Chairman Oliver Merrigan this week promised strong opposition to the introduction of charges in the car-parks.
‘We are doing our best to attract people to the town but we are not getting any encouragement with these charges being slapped on parking,’ he said. ‘Look at the car parks, there are only a few cars in them and not one of them loca. People are just not going to shop in the Main Street. They are going to drive people out to neighbouring towns like Wicklow and Gorey where there are no such charges,’ he added.