Row over parking in Tipperary as efforts to harmonise charges slammed as ‘unfair’
Efforts to harmonise parking rates across Tipperary are “totally unfair” to Clonmel residents, according to the town’s mayor.
At the December meeting of Tipperary County Council, councillors were asked to decide on whether to move the parking harmonisation attempts to public consultation stage so the opinions of people across the county could be considered, or whether to keep the issue at the council’s strategic policy committee (SPC).
Councillors were presented with a draft plan for the harmonisation of parking charges in all of Tipperary’s main towns, broken into three tiers.
Clonmel would be a tier one town, with short-term on street parking costing €1 for 30 minutes, parking for up to an hour on the town’s streets would cost €1.20, while medium zone parking would cost a maximum of €5.40 for four hours. All day parking tickets on the streets of Clonmel would cost €4.50.
This compares to €1 for 30 minutes of on-street parking in Tipperary town, a tier three town, while parking for an hour on the street would cost €1, while a medium zone parking ticket for four hours costing €3.40. All day on street parking would cost €3.70.
Mayor of Clonmel Pat English hit out that the costs for parking in Clonmel would be the highest in the county, saying that this measure would be unfair on the people of Clonmel.
"It’s totally unfair, Clonmel people are providing almost half of the whole county’s income from parking charges, a total of €3million is collected in parking charges with €1.4million coming from Clonmel.
“I was under the impression that the harmonisation of parking charges across the county would reduce the burden on Clonmel people, the SPC have failed the people of Clonmel, who shouldn’t have to continue to pay the highest rate of parking charges,” Cllr English hit out.
"The SPC have made no progress in creating a fair charging system across the board, across the county,” he said.
Hitting back at Cllr English, Fianna Fáil councillor Micheál Anglim called for the mayor of Clonmel to retract his statement.
"I’d ask Cllr Pat English to go back on what he said in that the members of the SPC had failed the people of Clonmel, I can tell you Cllr English, you’re wrong there and I’d like you to retract it.
"It’s an awkward situation and we’re trying to work on it as best we can,” Cllr Anglim said.
In response, a representative from the council said that the project needed to move to consultation stage in order for the project to keep moving.
“The natural progression for me anyway is public consultation, we’d like to see this out to public consultation pre-Christmas and we would like to see if we could get significant engagement, because it’s a significant piece of work.
"In reality, in terms of the implementation of it, is September 1, 2026,” councillors were told.
Councillors were asked to vote on a motion to keep the project in the SPC, with two councillors voting for and 29 voting against the motion.
The updated parking charges will go on full public display after Christmas, with councillors voting to hold the consultation in the New Year.