No council plans to provide designated campervan site
Sligo County Council say that there are no plans to provide a designated parking area for camper vans in Sligo town, despite claims that the town is missing out on tourism.
Liam O’Loughlin, from Arklow, owns a motor home and regularly visits Sligo.
But, he says, he is forced to continue as far as the north of Donegal to get somewhere where he can park his motorhome overnight.
“There are designated sites in Strandhill and Enniscrone, but they are off the beaten track,” claimed Mr. O’Loughlin.
“Sligo is worse than Donegal for it. Down the east coast there are plenty of sites for camper vans to park up overnight.
“Cobh is great for it. But in the north west there is nowhere. There are signs in most car parks saying ‘no overnight parking’ so where are we meant to go?
“Most of the campers are OAPs so they can’t be moving about as well as some younger people.
“No provision is made for people with camper vans. Sligo is losing out on money because of this. I was up in Sligo a couple of weeks ago and I went to Grange for one night and I went to Mullaghmore.
“I went on as far as Ballyshannon and there was signs saying ‘no campers’, and there was a food fair on in Donegal so I met with the Lord Mayor to have a word with him,” Mr. O’Loughlin added.
In response, Sligo County Council say that there are currently no plans to provide such a site, and that privately run sites in Sligo welcome camper van users.
“There is no official parking area for overnight parking of camper vans in Sligo Town, nor do the local authority have any immediate plan to provide them. There are very few, if any, local authority run camper van parks throughout the Country.
“There are however privately run Caravan Parks only a few miles from town, i.e. Strandhill and Rosses Point. and both of these facilities welcome camper van users.”