Gardening.ie

We live in a rural area so walking to town isn't an option!!

Hi

We here in Inishowen on the NW coast of Ireland have just had parking meters put into our town. (We had our first traffic lights last year!) We are a town of about 6000 abnd traffic is pretty tight through the town with double parking and tourists in the summer. We have development outside the town in the shape of new shopping areas with free car parking(for the moment) The charges are from the minute you park your vehicle, there isn't a free time. The cost is 50 cent for an hour with a maximum of two hours(to keep the workers from blocking the car parking spaces in town all day whilst they are at work. These workers now block the free supermarket car park



My questions are this.

Do you live in an area with these parking restrictions? Has it eased the traffic problem or do cars still block the roads and does introducing these charges lead to people leaving the town centre and shop elsowhere in the out of town stores?

I would be interestd to see as I don't think this is a good idea at all. It is a stealth tax for the council to charge an easy target to build up revenue to buy more car parking space to charge more. The worst about it is there is an outside company responsible for policing the parking and they are on a fantasic bonus scheme! (their words on the website!)

cheers

Thanks chickenlady from self sufficientish

This is probably a situation where park and ride would work well. If you have to pay a lot to park in town but nothing to park in the shopping areas out of town, it is bound to have an effect on the town centre shops.

It is OK if public transport is good and cheap, but I suspect it isn't or people would leave their cars at home!

A park and ride scheme subsidised by the council to make it really attractive to commuters, shoppers and tourists would ease the congestion, but the council would need to keep the parking charges high in town or people would still be tempted to take their cars in.

Here it is fairly easy to park in town although it can get expensive. If I am going in just for an hour or so (generally the case as I hate shopping), it is cheaper to take the car and park than get the bus (especially if I have kids in tow). But because I try to be green, I do get the bus in quite frequently. It is difficult to do this if you are in a rural area, though, as we all know that buses are often not frequent enough to be of much use.

I put the question about pay and display to a few forum sites. The feedback was surprising in that the charges differed greatly depending on the location. Most places though (such as Derry) have an hour free parking on the roads before the tickets start to come out. This gives most people the chance to do their daily stuff in town. Of course this doesn't generate the required revenue for the new Council car parks. More meters and more revenue. It won't be long before Super valu has the barriers up too!!!

Cheers

Charging for parking keeps workers from jamming up the streets all day. This leaves shoppers to do their stuff. Fo the sake of 50 cent an hour I think that's pretty good value!

Hi

I witnessed my first victim today!! A woman popped into the post office and when she came out a ticket was on her windscreen. She was very matter of fact about it and just put it in her pocket (embarassement probably)

There are areas where you can park all day for 1 euro 50 if you don't want to spend the 50 cent an hour as well.

The more I ask people the more I feel that it doesn't really bother anyone. A few people still think it is a stealth tax,picking on motorists yet again.

The council raise money to buy land for more car parks to charge more cars to get more car parks.....


Cheers

In my opinion, it was the best thing to happen in Ballybofey. Before charges, there were never any spaces, especially at the HSE car park. Now, it generally isn't a problem and I don't mind spending a few cents for it.

Thanks muffler from boards.ie

think its great. I use the car parks in Ballybofey several times a week and depending which one Im using its either 30 or 40 cents per hour. On street parking is 50 cents.

You know one cigarette at the moment costs about 37 cents - make the comparisons.

Heard they cant actually impose a fine yet, just a warning cause they havent got full approval yet.

Check this out!!!!

http://forum.downsizer.net/viewtopic.php?t=27884


Hi All

I have taken my eye off of the topic for a few days and I am really surprided at the response!! Parking is a real issue everywhere. We had a demonstration outside of our council offices on Wednesday evening about the new charges. This time it is the residents of the areas that have the meters. There is one parking permit allocated to a NAMED driver on the road. This means that only that car can use the parking facilities for the annual amount (175 euro est) This maens if any family member wants to park outside of their house....tough! same goes for friends and relations visiting.


We are waiting to see the outcome

Buncrana would benefit by having an hours free parking before a charge is put on the car. This would give folk the chance to do their bits of shopping without being charged.

This wouldn't generate an incone though

Fruit of the Loom have gone and taken 60% of the rates charges with them so I suppose the council have to get the money from somewhere!

Check out the wardens story

I found this bit scary!!

As for the statistics to date, there have been around 200 on-the-spot fines issued since the start of the new year, he explains. Before Christmas, there were 2,500 warnings issued to illegally-parked motorists, in lieu of fines. This was to give drivers a fair run-in time to adjust to the new charges.

http://www.inishowennews.com/08WardenGareth.htm

Whatever the pros and cons about charging, what about the way people park, parallel parking does not exist in Inishowen and mass abandonment of cars is the flavour of the day. Take a look at Carn or Moville were people block roads to run in and do the messages, 1.5 hours later they return to the car oblivious to other road users. We don't need wardens just a psycho in an uninsured 1983 landrover defender with bullbars flying about the town and the minute he spots one of these double parking gombeens he mills into the car wrecking it. I would love that job in Carn-it's new name would be Carnage(geddit).

Rgds,
Noel