New parking bye-laws propose charges

by Páraic McMahon paraic @clareecho.ie

NEW parking bye-laws are to propose ticketing in Fanore, Spanish Point and White Strand while the area currently covered by Kilkee, Lahinch and Doolin will be extended.

Parking bye-laws for Kilkee, Lahinch, Doolin, Fanore, Spanish Point and White Strand Miltown Malbay went out for public consultation last week with a report to be compiled on the foot of all submissions by the end of August.

Three hour parking will now cost €2 while all day parking will need a ticket worth €5 in the beach car park of Fanore, the East End car park in Kilkee, the West End car park in Kilkee, Promenade car park in Lahinch, Liscannor Rd car park in Lahinch and Miltown Malbay Rd car park in Lahinch, Spanish Point beach car park, the R482 in Spanish Point, White Strand beach car park in Miltown Malbay and car parking spaces on the L-6268 in Miltown.

In Doolin, there is a €2 charge for up to three hours for all Type A vehicles, a €5 charge for up to 30 hours for all Type A vehicles and an additional fee of €10 for any period in excess of 30 hours but less than one week, there will be a further charge of €10 for each week or part of a week. There will be no charge for Type B Vehicles which are those with accommodation for more than seven people. On Fisher Street, the fee is €2 for up to two hours and €5 for up to 10 hours.

Market Square, O’Connell Street and Curry Square in Kilkee restricts parking to a maximum of two hours at a cost of €2. Marine Parade, West End and Strand Line will have onstreet parking fees of €2 (three hours) and €5 (ten hours).

A maximum two hour parking restriction for €2 is proposed for Lahinch’s Main Street, Church Street and Rue D’Arzon.

No date has been outlined for when it is intended that the bye-laws will come into operation.

Administrative officer in the transportation department of Clare County Council, Liam O’Connor said, “there are some slight amend- ments in the streets of Kilrush and Kilkee where we want turnover and to adhere to the two hour limit. Kilkee, Lahinch and Doolin have existing bye-laws, we are now looking to extend the area. Fanore, Spanish Point and White Strand are new areas to put in bye-laws”. He confirmed that both Kilrush and Ennistymon have been withdrawn from plans “for the moment”.

Cathaoirleach of the West Clare Municipal District, Cllr Ian Lynch (IND) was critical that input from the public and councillors had been “ignored”.

He stated, “we went to a meeting and had discussions but it is disappointing that it hasn’t been taken on board”.

Clarity was sought by Cllr Cillian Murphy (FF) on whether rates payers and business owners would be allocated a parking permit. “There is not a lot of permit residents where the parking is in Kilkee, funnily enough I know we had a discussion on permit residence vs holiday homes but there is no distinguishment in what is in the draft”.

Management of the slipway in Kilkee is not included in the draft, he added to which O’Connor assured, “it will be clearly mapped”. Cllr Murphy responded, “There is nothing in the thing to say there will be individual parking or boat parking will be accommodated. We’ve not been given any clarity and I can tell you it is already carnage”. O’Connor said, “It is very difficult to legislate for everything in the bye-laws, our plan was to clearly map on the ground and it would be very obvious that you can’t go behind certain points with a car”.

Boats and trailers need the same penalties as cars when it comes to parking, Cllr Murphy stressed. “There needs to be rules around parking boats baked into the byelaws, there’s carnage already and it is state sponsored, everywhere else we’re saying there’s lines and boxes and if the car doesn’t go into it there will be penalties, needs to be the same for boats and trailers”.

Advice was then provided by O’Connor that the bye-laws can be amended following the public con- sultation period “to allow for clarity on certain issues”. Cllr Lynch believed this approach meant if the public did not pick up an issue, it would not be amended. “We did the briefing to get the feelers,” O’Connor replied to which the Chair remarked, “but we were ignored”.

“None of the feelers went into the document,” Cllr Murphy commented. He outlined a scenario where the owner of a 10-bed guesthouse on the main street of a village who is paying “significant rates” could be left without parking for guests if the street is covered by bye-laws.

Colm Linnane of the Council’s roads section flagged that parking would be free to 10am and after 8pm in each of the locations.

Parking charges can be of benefit, Cllr Joe Killeen (FF) observed. “We’ve been looking for funding for projects, I know a lot of tourists are using North Clare and we’re getting zero from them so this is a way to try change that”. He questioned what events were planned as part of the public consultation to which Linnane said that there was a statutory obligation to put all notices in offices of the local authority and online, “I’m not sure if there is an intention to do more than that”.

To boost the public consultation, Cllr Joe Garrihy (FG) suggested linking in with “fairly established community groups and connections” and the Council’s rural community development officer to increase awareness around it.