Proposed age friendly parking at Brian Boru Square will have to wait

A request for a new age friendly parking bay to be put in place on Brian Boru Square in Fermoy was shot down by council officials until countywide policy is put in place.

The motion was tabled at last week's meeting of the Fermoy Municipal District by local councillor Frank O’Flynn. However, Senior Engineer Brendan O’Gorman informed the council that funding to put the parking bay in place is not currently available.

“Until an overall countywide policy is put in place for the provision of age friendly parking bays in our towns and villages, we will note the request and consider when a future funding stream is allocated,” Mr O’Gorman said.

Saying he was ‘disappointed’ with the response, Cllr O’Flynn highlighted that there are a number of businesses on Brian Boru Square which ‘quite a lot’ of elderly people visit.

According to the councillor, elderly people have had difficulty accessing the businesses, citing traffic increases and the busy road which many have to cross when parking at the other side of the road to get to the businesses.

“I’m disappointed for the people, this is something they looked for and we cannot do,” Cllr O’Flynn said.

'WE DON'T HAVE THE BUDGET'

Senior Engineer Brendan O’Gorman stated that there is a ‘ cost element’ to putting age friendly parking bays in place.

He noted current policy regarding the age friendly bays refers to what materials are used and what signage is put in place. However, he noted that what has not been agreed is how many spaces are put in each district, who pays for it, and where the funding comes from.

“We don’t have the budget for it, and we have to be mindful of how these are rolled out,” Mr O’Gorman added.

Cllr Kay Dawson, who has been very active in age friendly projects especially in her home town of Mitchelstown, said that the core value of the age friendly projects is older people identifying issues which need addressing themselves.

“If we do all the work in advance, then they’ve had no input. We’re deciding for them what is best for them and this eliminates the process of that decision making,” Cllr Dawson said.

Stressing she was not in opposition to the motion that was tabled, she added that the project’s process ‘really works well’ and commended the council on their work.