‘People are going to Cahir instead’ — Cashel parking cuts driving customers away
The removal of 12 parking spaces in Cashel is driving shoppers and diners to neighbouring towns, a local councillor has claimed.
Tipperary County Council has removed eight parking spaces from the Camas Road in Cashel, as well as another four that have been removed from the Golden Road.
At the July meeting of the Tipperary-Cahir-Cashel Municipal District, Fianna Fáil councillor Roger Kennedy said that businesses at this end of Cashel town would suffer because of the removal of parking spaces.
“How is that meant to be compensated for people who want to use the parking bays? How are the commercial premises that we expect to collect commercial rates from meant to get people to use their services?” he asked.
“This is a continuous effort to continue to remove parking bays all over the town of Cashel, and we now have people who can’t find parking to do business or shopping.
“These people are now coming into Cashel, they find they can’t park there to have their lunch so they’re going to Cahir, or they’re going out to Horse and Jockey,” Cllr Kennedy said.
The businesses at this end of Cashel, like all businesses in the town, would have paid the council for the provision of parking, Cllr Kennedy added, saying that businesses should be compensated if parking spaces were being taken away.
“The parking bays that they paid for are now gone, are we going to compensate those businesses, or what alternative are we going to provide on the lower end of town for parking so that people can continue to do business in the area?” he asked.
In response, district engineer James Swords said that in the case of the Camas Road, the spaces were removed for safety.
“In Camas Road, there was a small number of spaces removed in agreement with the local residents, but they were never 100pc occupied.
“As it stands with the spaces removed, the road is only six metres wide, and it’s an extremely busy regional road, there’s heavy goods vehicles, large plant machinery, pedestrians, and a lot of vulnerable pedestrians as well,” Mr Swords explained.
Cllr Kennedy said that the claims that the spaces weren’t being used was “erroneous”.
District director Damien Ginty said that the management of existing spaces throughout the town is “key” and said that the council was looking at providing extra spaces in Cashel.
Mr Ginty said businesses were not entitled to parking spaces directly outside their premises simply because they paid commercial rates and parking charges.
“If people pay car parking charges it is to contribute towards the future provision of car parking in the town of Cashel,” he said.
“In relation to Cashel specifically, we are looking at another location that may be able to provide additional car parking in the town, but that will require a small sum of investment to make that right for car parking,” Mr Ginty added.