Disabled parking bays in Wexford town removed to make space for Heineken barrels — ‘This is happening to benefit publicans’

By Simon Bourke, Wexford People

The loss of three disabled parking bays in Wexford town is preventing some wheelchair users from accessing vital resources on North Main Street.

Contending that the spaces on Charlotte Street, which have been in situ since “god was a child”, were removed to make room for “Heineken barrels” in the summer, Councillor Ger Carthy said his constituents were being denied their fundamental right to visit the county town.

“There’s a lady from our district who has an adapted car and a motorised wheelchair, historically she would have used one of those spaces,” he said at the September meeting of the Rosslare Municipal District (RMD). “She needed that space so she could access the centre of the town.

“That’s been taken away from her by the Wexford Borough roads department. Under no circumstances are the replacement spaces any use to this woman.”

Although technically not an RMD issue, Cllr Carthy argued that because many of those from within his district use Wexford town as their main retail centre he had a right to raise this on their behalf.

“The people we represent use the town and they’re being denied a fundamental right to access the centre of town, and the reason it’s happening is to benefit publicans,” he continued. “Michael Tierney (late owner of the Stores) didn’t need any streets closed to help his business, those three disabled spaces were there since god was a child.

“I would like a taskforce set up in relation to disability in Wexford County Council (WCC). I’ll get a wheelchair, put some of these engineers in it, and ask them to wheel themselves around town. They can go up to where the alternative spaces were put in, around Abbey Street. We’ll see how they get on.”

At the meeting of the Wexford Borough District four days later the issue of disabled parking spaces was once more raised by Cllr Biddy Walsh. On this occasion, district engineer Lar Lett had some positive updates regarding the replacement of the lost spaces on Charlotte St.

“I have engaged with three private car park owners, two of them said straight away that they will come on board - and the third was quite positive,” he said. “They are willing to include blue badge and age friendly spaces in their car parks, that should leave us with three, if not four, spaces in the town centre.”