Anger over blocked disabled parking space in Tipperary — ‘looks like an attack on disabled drivers’
There is “massive anger” in one north Tipperary town about a wheelchair-accessible parking space that has been blocked off with bollards.
The issue was raised by Labour councillor Louise Morgan Walsh at the May meeting of the Nenagh Municipal District, who said that it looks like an “attack” on people with disabilities.
The parking space outside St Joseph’s CBS on Summerhill in Nenagh has seen parking bollards erected around it, meaning that no one can use it.
However, council officials said the parking space belongs to the school and was never designated as a public parking bay.
“It’s affecting ratepayers across the road, it’s the only wheelchair accessible space up Summerhill,” Cllr Morgan Walsh said.
“I have been told that it’s private property, but if that’s the case, how come there’s spaces on the left hand side at the entrance to the school that the public are allowed to use?”
“We need to act on this. I’ve had the Irish Wheelchair Association on to me about it because it’s totally unacceptable,” she added.
In response, district engineer Barry Murphy said that the accessible parking space was put in by St Joseph’s CBS, and isn’t a public space.
“That is private property belonging to the school. The school has approached us and said that over a long number of years that morning drop-off is particulary chaotic,” Mr Murphy said.
“I went out and had a look at it, and I could see the indiscipline was violently clear. People were stopping on the pedestrian crossing, they saw no harm in that, kids were jumping out left, right and centre, people were parking everywhere but the most common parking position, that was completely ignored, was that parking spot.
“So part of the solution was that you could limit the parking by using those temporary bollards. You could close off that parking spot. The school were of the opinion that they have an alternative parking spot within their school,” Mr Murphy explained.
The parking spot was never a public one, he added, despite the fact that members of the public had been using it.
Cllr Morgan Walsh called for awareness of the fact that the space belongs to the school, saying that bollards around a wheelchair space makes it look like an “attack” on people with disabilities.
“The other side then, people can park there freely,” Cllr Morgan Walsh said. “It looks like it’s an attack on disabled drivers. There’s no other disabled car parking spaces up Summerhill,” she said.
The district engineer said that there was no easy solution to the situation, but that the situation before the space was blocked off was extremely dangerous.
“It’s not our parking spot, it’s private property and the school has made that decision,” Mr Murphy said.
“They think that we, as a council, should be providing a disabled space, and I think that is the way forward. There’s no easy solution, we’ve got a chaotic situation at set-down, and what makes this school particularly worse is that you have two schools together.
“I agree that we need to put in a disabled car parking space, and that’s what we’ll do,” Mr Murphy concluded.