PAY AND DISPLAY IN BUNCRANA

Cars in Cork have a hard time when their tickets run out

Not everyone is lucky enough to be able to collect their child from school or go shopping in Buncrana on foot. For those who do the parking charges probably wont be much of an issue. The rest of us who have to take our cars in to town the introduction of the traffic management system being planned will be a major (and costly) inconvenience.

The motorists parking in Buncrana will have the added cost of being charged not only to supply the town with extra car parking facilities but also to fund a highly motivated and driven team of employers working for a successful multinational company. Eurocarparks the proposed company coming in to manage the system have, (as their website claims), a fantastic bonus system in place for the workforce. This sounds a bit worrying for anyone daring to flaunt the rules knowing that the wardens are on a productivity scheme.

If the money for the pay and display is going back to the council then where is the money to pay the annual charges for Eurocarparks coming from?

A car park in Tyneside owned by Eurocarparks had to change their policy recently when disabled drivers complained about how they were being treated. The drivers didn’t object to being charged. What they objected to was the fact that after parking in a zone outside their library they had to purchase their ticket from the machine, which was a long way from the building. They then had to return to the car and then go to the Library. This obviously defeats the object of having the parking bays close to where you need to go.

There are drivers that cause major tailbacks down the main street in the town. Double parking or people who have no idea how to park a vehicle and taking ten minutes to reverse into a parking spot can cause tailbacks right down the Cockhill road. So can lorries delivering to shops. But isn’t this why the town is getting an outer and inner ring road, to take the traffic passing through to avoid these hold ups?

The Pay and Display is being introduced to raise the funds to buy more car parks and to deter shop workers and office staff from parking up all day and depriving the shopper of a space. All well and good but has it been thought through? The workers in the town will still need to park somewhere . There is talk of the decentralisation of the town with new developments planned at the shore from and on the main Derry road. Surely this is a bigger threat to the high street?

Environmental.