Fear that free car parks to go if parking is €1

MAYOR Pio Smith (pictured) fears that the free car parks in Drogheda will go- if the charge is reduced to €1 per hour.

He says Dundalk is €1, but the town has no free parking areas as a result.

“The parking bye laws are now out to public consultation so I would encourage the public to make submissions on these.

‘Now is a good time to have a serious look at our pay parking system.

‘In Drogheda we have 1,205 on street pay parking spaces, including 32 all day spaces for 3 eiro at North Strand and 26 all day parking spaces for 2 euro on the Dublin Road.

‘ There are 288 pay parking spaces in our car parks.

‘Also, in Drogheda we have 219 free car parking spaces at the car parks on the Donore Road and at Mell.

‘ The income from parking is 1.1 million euro per year. The challenge facing us is, how do we make the most effective use of pay parking in Drogheda such that it accomodates workers, shoppers, lesuire users and tourists,’ he stated,

‘It may be the case that we reduce the parking charge across the board to one euro similar to Dundalk.

‘However, that might mean that Drogheda will have to give up it’s 219 free car parking spaces as all parking in Dundalk is pay parking.

‘Parking was reduced in Dundalk when the town council was a Local Authority similar to the old Drogheda Borough Council. The savings were found within that structure back in 2012 when Dundalk councillors requested a reduction.’

He says all the angles should be explored in respect of parking.

‘I believe that we should examine every possibility including having different parking rates for town areas, free parking and reduced long stay parking.

‘We need to address the concerns of the business community and also create a town centre where people can access easily from Thursday to Saturday.

‘ This is an opportunity to do things better than Dundalk or any other town. We need to use our imagination and come up with innovative and workable ideas”