Town parking fees

Plan to hike up parking fees has been abandoned

THERE has been vehement opposition to proposals by Killarney Town Council to increase the cost of parking in a number of car parks in the town.
It is estimated that a whopping ¤995,000 will be raised through car parks fees in Killarney during the next 12 months and the council reassured the public, in its budget report, that it does not propose to increase parking charges for 2007.
But the annual finance plan did moot increasing the cost of the weekly permit for car parks in Lewis Road and High Street from ¤6 to ¤10 per week.
Combined with increased car park spaces provided in the main New Street car park, this could yield an additional ¤25,000, according to council officials.
But Cllr Tom Doherty has voiced his opposition to the proposal and he said there could be no tolerance for any plan to hike the fees in the car parks.
“One of the things I pushed for was to keep the category B parking, at the car parks on Lewis Road and at High Street, to ¤6,” he told The Kingdom.
“They were looking for an increase to ¤10 but I feel strongly that it should be left at ¤6 per week,” he said.
Cllr Doherty said council officials were concerned that a number of people parked their cars at Lewis Road and High Street and left them there for up to eight hours a day while they went to work.
“It was felt that we needed a turnover of parking spaces for those that shop and for business in the town centre but I thought it was unfair to further penalise the employ-ees who are the face of local business and the smile that greets the tourist,” Cllr Doherty stated.
“There was no way I was going to accept an increase,” he said following the annual estimates meeting.
Meanwhile, the rise in the cost of parking fines in the town in the past year has almost doubled the revenue made by the local authority.
Fines for parking illegally in the town leaped from ¤19 to ¤40, increasing to ¤60 if the fine is not paid within four weeks. Last year, Killarney Town Council earned nearly ¤150,000 for parking fines and the previous year it hauled in ¤76,200.
The council plans to upgrade the car parks at High Street and Fair Hill in 2007 and an extra 60 parking spaces have been provided at the main car park on New Street.

The Kingdom newspaper