Debate over parking in Kilkenny city centre rumbles on

There was plenty of debate around the possibility of removing free parking in the city centre at a recent meeting of Kilkenny City Municipal District.
City engineer, Ian Gardner said that the free parking was enabling people on some streets ‘to park for up to an hour without being caught’.
Cllr Fitzgerald also said that he was ‘totally and utterly opposed’ to any suggestion that the 15 minutes of free parking in certain areas of the city be removed.
“Small businesses rely on this,” he said, adding that if it was to be removed it would ‘put people out of business and out of jobs’.
Mayor Andrew McGuinness said he supported Cllr Fitzgerald completely.
“I have already seen businesses struggle due to Covid. To take this away would be absolutely devastating,” he added.
Cllr Eugene McGuinness said that he was concerned that businesses had suffered because of the removal of parking spaces.
“We need an alternative. If we are serious about removing some of the traffic we should have parking options on the outskirts of the city,” he said.
Cllr Martin Brett told the meeting that if the 15 minutes of free parking were abolished ‘it will cause a lot of bother to a lot of businesses who pay rates to this city’.
Cllr Maria Dollard said that it is not sustainable ‘to encourage traffic into the city’.
“We have fought hard for businesses but people will never change if they can drive into the heart of the city and park. We need park and ride facilities,” she said.
Mr Gardner told the elected members that he would prepare a report on the matter.
Meanwhile a number of short to medium term parking options for the Irishtown area of Kilkenny City were mooted at a recent meeting of the local municipal district. Mr Gardner said that the closure of the Watergate carpark (in front of the Mayfair building) had resulted in 14 to 15 parking spaces been lost to accommodate the commencement of works at the Mayfair.
Cllr David Fitzgerald said that ‘the elephant in the room is that we have a carpark in the Abbey Quarter. Cllr Fitzgerald said thatthe reality is that this carpark will be ‘lying idle’ in the evenings because of restrictions put on it by An Bord Pleanala.