Calls for parking receipts to be ringfenced in Longford

Local politicians and senior council bosses are on collision course over how paid parking revenue is spent and distributed.

It comes after Fianna Fáil Cllr Seamus Butler, not for the first time, spelled out how the intake of parking receipts is a “reserved” or the preserve of local politicians as set out under national legislation.
The local businessman, in speaking at last Wednesday's meeting of Longford Municipal District, said the issue would be on the agenda of next month's county council budget “big time”.
Cllr Butler said: “It’s our income.

“I have said it before, if the Granard Municipal Area wants to introduce parking charges, they can do so and if Ballymahon wants to do the same but we are the ones that get it in the neck year, in and year out over parking charges and the legislation says we can set parking charges but also the disposal of that income is ring fenced within this Municipal District.”

Cllr Butler said he intended to lead a debate on the matter when the council holds its annual budget meeting on December 4.

He also said he had been left “somewhat disappointed” figures relating to parking income had not been made available at last Wednesday's Municipal District meeting.
His calls were supported by Independent Cllr Gerry Warnock who told of how parking income had been one of his first, key bones of contention upon the dissolution of Longford Town Council in 2014.
And like, Cllr Butler, the father of two said there was no getting away from the way in which parking income was defined on the nation's Statute books.

“It’s quite clear in the Local Government Reform Act 2014 that it is very much a reserved function of the Municipal District as opposed to the plenary council and out of the three municipal districts in county Longford, this is the predominantly only urban based district,” he said.
“With that comes its own set of opportunities and certainly challenges in the volume of those we as a municipal authority have to deal with on a daily basis, be it social issues, investment issues, economic issues.”

Cllr Warnock said a potentially bigger factor to bear in mind was how Ireland's push towards a more green focused society would impact on paid parking returns into the future.
“It’s a constant bone of contention councillors have to deal with around parking and the income from that has always been spent well and made a huge improvement to our county town down through the decades,” he said.

“If we look at the investment to off street parking, that was directly attributed to income generated from paid parking and this is actually an asset for our county town considering the journey we are going on in Active Travel and the development of our town centre.”