This article is from page 4 of the 2011-06-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
A “VACANT” 41-space car park in the centre of Ennis counters the perception that the town suffers from a shortage of short-term parking spaces, senior officials with Ennis Town Council have said.
In a motion submitted to the June meeting of Ennis Town Council, Cllr Mary Howard (FG) questioned if the increase in parking charges “has had a negative impact on the revenue (from same)”, Cllr Howard said she was referring in particular to the Friary walk car park.
She told the meeting that the car park “was nearly always full but is now nearly always empty”.
Parking charges rose to € 1.30 an hour in Ennis in January. In his response to Cllr Howard’s motion, Town Clerk Eddie Power said an examination of income from parking meters to May 31 (2011) showed an increase over the same period last year.
He added, “It is clear that there are now vacant spaces in this car park throughout each day. The availability of significant number of spaces so close to the town addresses perceived deficiencies in short-term parking in the core town centre areas.”
Mr Power told the meeting that the availability of spaces “begs the question, was there a shortage at all”. He said that more customers might use the car park during the summer. He added that Council officials had been “on record” and repeatedly stated that multi-story car parks in Ennis are underutilised.
Town Manager Ger Dollard told last week’s meeting that it was still too early to if the increase in charges has led to a reduction in parking in Ennis.
He said the decision to reduce maximum parking stay at the Friary walk car park from three to two hours had been taken in response to concerns over the shortage of short-term car park spaces. He said the new byelaws delivered 41 spaces within one minute’s walk from the town centre at a time where there had been “very strong public opinion that you couldn’t get parking in Ennis”.
“If it stays vacant for the next six months, then you have to ask will we change it,” he added. Referring to the use of multi-story car parks, Mr Dollard said occupancy of private multi-story car parks is “30 per cent at best”.
Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) claimed drivers are boycotting use of the car park. Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) said the car park could be used to cater for the “120 buses shooting past Ennis” on a daily basis.
Mayor of Ennis Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind) questioned if the car park is not being fully used because they think it is fenced off.
“People are driving around the hotel looking for spaces and the one beside it is empty,” he added.
The Council’s annual financial statement for 2010 shows that parking fees and charges collected by the Council dropped from € 1,484,957 in 2009 to € 1,407,147 last year.