Parking restrictions costing business

KILKEE county councillor Pat Keane told Monday’s Kilrush Electoral Area meeting that parking restrictions in Kilkee and Kilrush are adversely affecting business in both towns. He made his comments after director of services, Ann Haugh, informed the meeting that Kilkee Town Council had agreed to increase parking in all of O’Curry Street and Circular Road in Kilkee to two hours. Although he formally backed the proposal, which had to be passed at the meeting to be adopted, Councillor Keane expressed frustration with ongoing parking issues in both West Clare towns.

 

“What’s happening is we’re driving businesses out of town. If somebody comes into town shopping and they get a parking fine, you won’t see them again and that’s the bottom line,” he claimed.
Councillor Keane said he would prefer a situation where managing too much traffic was an issue.

“Our problem this year is that we don’t have people parking. You drive down the street, up to last week and there was nobody there. We have made an awful issue with parking in our towns in West Clare. We have to tolerate a certain amount of inconvenience but our problem is we don’t have enough of inconvenience with traffic. If we could have more people in Kilkee and Kilrush and put up with it, we’d be better off,” he said.

“Whatever the recommendation coming from Kilkee Town Council, I would go along with it and propose it. I think we have to have a serious look at car parking charges both in Kilkee and in Kilrush,” Councillor Keane stated.

Councillor Gabriel Keating asked that residents in O’Curry Street and Circular Road be allowed to park in front of their houses.

“I would hope that there would be some kind of a pass issued to the few residents that are there.

“There are only a few. I think that would be great and it would solve a lot of the problems,” Councillor Keating said.

Ms Haugh, who is town manager in Kilkee and Kilrush, told the meeting that the traffic warden in Kilkee would come to an arrangement with residents.

“We agreed it at a meeting in Kilkee, where the one-hour restriction in O’Curry Street and Circular Road is to be increased to two hours. An informal arrangement is to be agreed with the traffic warden in relation to a small number of residents that would have a requirement for parking outside their homes.

“The proposal is to afford that extra hour for people to park. That should facilitate the businesses, including the restaurants and hairdressers,” Ms Haugh said.