This article is from page 35 of the 2008-06-24 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 35 JPG
THE current supply of parking spac- es in Ennis is adequate to meet the demands of the town, according to a new report.
The preliminary report carried out by Parking Consultants Ltd for Ennis Town Council found that of the 3,113 available parking spaces in Ennis on a Saturday, 315 were vacant. The fig- ures were determined from the total of vacant council on street parking spaces (35), council off-street park- ing (78), market spaces (42) and pri- vate car parks (160).
Liam Keilthy of Parking Consult- ants Ltd told the June meeting of Ennis Town Council that “the cur- rent supply appears adequate to meet demand on normal busy days”.
The report also outlines a number of recommendations designed to maximise the use of prime on-street parking spaces that could spell bad news for people working in the town CH NsKe
The report concludes that for busy days, special parking permit should only be allowed for residents, maxi- mum parking stay should be set at two hours and people working in the town centre should not be permitted in multi-story car parks.
“If on busy days we want to make the most of our assets, we need to release the space to shoppers,” said Mr Keilthy.
He added “I would advocate to you that if you want to manage the assets you have for the best possible benefit of customers, you need to get long
stay parkers out of the town centre.”
Mr. Keilthy said that on street parking arrangements should favour shoppers.
‘The rate payers have to be sensible about this. For a retailer it is black and white, do you want the customer in your shop or not?”
The report also recommends in- creasing parking charges to econom- ic levels.
Mr Keilthy said, “Parking is a cost of owning a car. If you look at the figures from the AA, a third of the typical cost of owning a car is taken up with parking.
‘In Ennis you have a situation in the town where one person is taking up a space for a long period and denying three to four shoppers who could be spending money in the town.”
However Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) warned, “We have a situation in En- nis where a lot of people working in the town centre. Can we really now look at putting an extra financial bur- den on young people?”
The survey also found that the number of private cars registered in Clare would top 100,000 by the year 2019.
Green Party councillor Donal O’Bearra was critical, saying the Council should instead focus on pe- destrianisation in the town.
“The car is so 20th century. This flies in the face of pedestriaisation. If we do this we are inviting cars into the town. You are supplying the de- mand. If we look exclusively at car parking spaces we are not living in the real world,” he said.