Town centre car park in Tipperary won't reopen until middle of November
Frustration about 'extraordinary delay' says Mayor
The Abbey Street car park in Clonmel won’t reopen until the middle of November.
Refurbishment works for the creation of a new performance space within the town centre car park were scheduled to have been completed by October 14.
However, District Administrator Carol Creighton told a meeting of Clonmel Borough District that this date would be extended to the middle of November because of initial delays in starting the work.
District Mayor Michael Murphy said there was a lot of frustration about this extraordinary delay. When the car park had closed there was no activity there for six to eight weeks.
The performance space will be an additional area for holding music and cultural events in the town centre.
At a meeting of the Borough District last May, Tipperary County Council CEO Sinead Carr said they would try to minimise disruption as much as possible and they would continue to actively engage with the local traders and others in the area.
At the time she acknowledged that there had been "some concern and frustration" about the temporary closure of the car park. She admitted that the council had to take responsibility for the fact that it didn’t have a more robust communication policy when it closed and construction work started.
She said that once completed, the performance space would add significant value to the town and people would be happy with it.
Funding for the project was provided by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.