*A full car park outside glór and the de Valera library.
CAR PARKING and whether there is an adequate or insufficient amount of spaces in the county prompted another divergence of opinions at the latest sitting of the Ennis Municipal District.
At the March meeting of the Ennis MD, Cllr Tom O’Callaghan (FF) submitted a motion requesting detail on the amount of spaces lost due to public realm works on O’Connell Street, the redevelopment of Ennis Community College and the de Valera library.
He received support from Cllr Pat Daly (FF) and Cllr Tommy Guilfoyle but was met with backlash from Acting Director of Service, Seán Lenihan along with sitting members of the Ennis 2040 DAC, Cllr Clare Colleran Molloy (FF) and Cllr Mary Howard (FG) who said they never encountered difficulties trying to source a space in the county town.
Speaking on Tuesday at the April meeting, Cllr O’Callaghan noted that he was not provided with the figure on the amount of spaces lost and asked that it be circulated.
“I gave a detailed response the last day,” Lenihan replied. He said Cllr O’Callaghan referenced a 2008 report citing a shortage of 1000 spaces, “in my response I mentioned the report as historical, I did some research after the fact, some of the findings in the Buchanan Report were based on projected population growth, projected housing growth and projected car ownership, that is where the figure of 8000 car spaces came from”.
Lenihan outlined, “The level of projected growth did not occur therefore the level of car parking was significantly less”. He said, “I’m not going to change my mind, we’re not going to refer to a historical report, we’ve much more recent data, the report said there was an adequate level of parking, it said it is neither possible or desirable to have a space for every car owner”. The engineer said he had answered O’Callaghan’s motion “in so far as I can” but did not provide a figure on the amount of spaces lost.
He continued, “We compare very favourably with other large towns, none of us are of the mind that the need for the car won’t be there into the future but we have to plan to manage for what we have and encourage less use of single car journeys”. The Miltown Malbay native said, “Everyone of us want to maximise the business and revenue that the town can avail of, talking about figures and exact figures isn’t helpful in this scenario, I deem the parking that we have as adequate, you disagree which is fine, we need to signpost it better into the future”.
A baffled Cllr O’Callaghan responded, “I’m at a loss, that is not what I asked, I simply asked how many spaces have been taken. We know the realm works are ongoing, there was spaces on O’Connell St, there were car spaces in front of the Community College, the same for the library, I’ve asked a simple question, I can’t understand why it can’t be answered”.
