Claremorris councillors given parking-charges ‘mandate’

Claremorris councillors receive ‘mandate’ over parking charges


Ciara Galvin

A petition calling for one hour free parking in Claremorris has been signed by almost 6,000 people. Along with this, the town’s Chamber of Commerce has called on local representatives to pass a bye law to introduce the measure.
Local businessman and president of the Chamber of Commerce, Jimmy Flynn told The Mayo News that the petition was a ‘referendum on unfair parking charges’.
“The result couldn’t be clearer, 6,000 people say they want what Westport has, one hour free parking. They’re saying to the seven Claremorris Councillors ‘we want one hour free, you have the power to provide one hour free, we’re giving you a clear mandate to make this change’”, said Mr Flynn.
The Chamber president went on to say that local councillors recently got the power to set their own budgets and charges and that they can no longer ignore this ‘burning issue’.
“We put a clear message to the people and that can’t be ignored. This has been going on three and a half years and parking revenue has been decreasing by 14 percent per annum,” said Flynn.
Last November the Chamber of Commerce applied for a Freedom of Information request on parking charges for Mayo County Council. According to the Chamber, these numbers showed each car parking space was earning €1.30 a week. This slumped to €1.10 in 2013, according to the Council’s annual report.
Fine Gael councillor Tom Connolly said he believed a universal policy on parking charges should be adopted across the county. Asked if he and his council colleagues have discussed the issue of parking charges, Cllr Connolly said they have not come to a solution on the issue.
He explained that the issue with providing one hour of free parking was that land had previously been bought and developed in order to provide these car parks in the town. Cllr Connolly said loans for these works still had to be repaid and that if one hour free parking was provided, a deficit in parking revenue would have to be met.
“Funding our car parks has to be justified and we haven’t done that yet,” said Cllr Connolly.
The Chamber president said the parking charges in the town ‘penalise small businesses and their customers’, while free parking in out of town centres give multi-national companies a ‘competitive advantage they don’t need’.
The Chamber estimates that in two years, parking charges in Claremorris will cost more than they earn.
“Giving one hour free parking won’t cost much”, said the Chamber president.
“We’re not asking for a free-for-all, just a sensible scheme, as in Westport. There’s no need to cut any service, no need to raise any charge, no need to deprive any group. Just divert a tiny fraction of the extra money continually wasted in Áras an Chondae,” he concluded.