Council ‘not considering’ freezing parking fees during current lockdown
TEMPERS flared a little at last week’s county council meeting on the subject of parking charges. Fianna Fáil councillor Michael Sheehan called for the immediate abandonment of parking charges in town centres across the county for the duration of Level 5 lockdown, similar to what we had in the initial lockdown.
Director of Services Eamonn Hore said that, the initial abandonment of parking charges was called for by the Taoiseach. He said there had been no such call this time and ‘at the moment, we’re not considering it’.
Cllr Sheehan wasn’t happy with this though and formally proposed to abandon parking charges, a call seconded by party colleague Cllr Lisa McDonald.
‘You can vote on this if you wish,’ Chief Executive Tom Enright said. ‘But I’m telling you we will take the members feedback into consideration. There is a need for certain parking control in our town centres and to keep the little bit of traffic that’s there flowing.’
Mr Enright said that a ‘light touch’ had been taking in relation to the enforcement of pay-parking in previous lockdowns and that this would be the case again.
Cllr Sheehan said that he was proposing that wardens still patrol for people parking illegally in loading bays, disabled spaces etc, but that a ‘light touch’ is something that could carry a different meaning in different towns. Seeking to remove any room for ambiguity, he called for charges to be scrapped altogether while lockdown was in place. He again called for a vote.
‘This is an executive function,’ Mr Enright shot back. ‘You can vote on it if you wish, and we will take the members views into account, but you can’t change it. It’s not the role of councillors. You can change the by-laws, but that would require a public consultation. We understand the concerns and will take the same light touch we had before. There were no significant issues then.’
Head of Finance Annette O’Neill then spoke up, saying that parking revenue of €2.9 million is ‘critical’ to the council budget and the provision of services. Last year, the council saw a shortfall of €1.2 million from parking charges. ‘Last year there were government supports made available,’ she said. ‘There’s no guarantee of these supports in 2021. If we lose €2.9 million in revenue, it will seriously impact the provision of services.’
While Cllr Sheehan was not happy, he agreed to withdraw his proposal with Mr Enright vowing that the council would ‘act appropriately’ in relation to parking.