Council offer free Christmas parking as Wicklow residents urged to shop local

By Hugh O'Farrell Walsh, The Wicklow People

Looking for free places to park in County Wicklow’s main towns while you do the Christmas shopping?

Wicklow County Council have released their Christmas 2025 parking arrangements for Bray, Greystones, Wicklow town and Arklow.

There will be free parking in select Wicklow town car parks, for a period of two hours, until Wednesday January 1, 2026. These include Abbey Street, Castle Street, Church Street, Kilmantin Hill, Murrough, St. Patricks Road, and Wicklow Gaol.

In Bray, free parking will be available at the Herbert Road car park (the council-owned portion only) every weekend until Sunday, January 4, 2026.

In Greystones, there will be two hours of free on-street parking every Saturday until December 20 inclusive. The car parks at the South Beach, Trafalgar Road and La Touche Road are free every Saturday throughout the year, as is the Park & Ride at the South Beach.

In Arklow, there will be two hours of free parking in Castlepark car park and Main Street car park for the Christmas period, until Friday, January 2, 2026.

Blessington and Baltinglass have year-round free parking in their town centres. These details are finalised as residents in Wicklow are encouraged to shop local this festive season.

According to research carried out by ISME, €10 spent locally on Irish products generates more than €40 of benefit to the local community in terms of employment.

The EY Ireland Consumer Pulse 2025 study released this week, seven in ten (71pc) say they will complete most of their festive shopping in-store.

Meanwhile, KPMG have highlighted how Irish consumers are preparing for a more challenging Christmas this year, due to economic uncertainties.

In a pitch to residents to support local businesses over the holiday period, Wicklow TD Edward Timmins outlined how they will benefit from the custom.

“As an experienced businessperson, I’m aware of the crucial role that SMEs play to our local economy. As a TD, I will be using all my platforms to promote local business over the coming weeks.”

“Research carried out on behalf of the Local Enterprise Offices as part of a “Look for Local” campaign demonstrated that 82pc of Irish consumers were more likely to buy local, either online or in-store because of campaigns to promote local businesses so that’s why I’m promoting this.”

“I would encourage people to share posts from boutiques to butchers across their social media channels, using the hashtags #ShopWicklow #SupportLocal so we can bring our local businesses in Wicklow to a wider audience.” he added.