Free car park due to close up this week
Turn Bridgeford into workers car park
IT has been coming, but it seems the day has arrived.
This Thursday is the scheduled closure date for the free car park at the old fire station on Scarlet Street.
Developed by Louth County Council as a smarter travel initiative some years ago, the car park was very much a workers resource - by 9.15am it was pretty hard to find a space in it.
But it was also very handy for those who wanted to pop in to Eddie’s Hardware across the road and I’d say their customers will feel its loss.
The car park is going to make way for much needed housing and we can only hope that it’s designed in a way to fit in nicely with the character of the street.
As for the workers mentioned above, they’ll have to find somewhere else to pull up for the day.
I know the council state that there’s loads of excess parking places in Drogheda and they are right.
The town centre multi-storey options are always available, but many workers don’t want to come into the town centre to park all day.
They would gladly walk - as the fire station initiative suggested - but at this stage, there are no free parking options on the whole northside of Drogheda, apart from Mell - and it fills quickly too.
I was passing down the Termonfeckin Road last week and spotted the magnificent Bridgeford site.
It has been vacant for years and surely the council and the owners could come to some arrangement and even turn it into a free car park - and with the Fleadh on the way - it would be a real bonus for the town.
And for those living on the other side of Drogheda - coming in the Marsh Road - could a deal not be done with Irish Rail on the constantly empty car park at the viaduct.
Time to think outside the box.