Heated debate at council meeting over Carrick-on-Suir Main Street parking dispute

Tensions over the controversy surrounding plans to permanently remove 27 parking spaces from Carrick-on-Suir’s Main Street under the town’s €17.9m Regeneration Scheme boiled over in a heated debate at a district council meeting last Friday.

The spark was a motion tabled by four of Carrick Municipal District’s five councillors at their November meeting calling on all the councillors to support the delivery of the Carrick Regeneration Scheme in its entirety and to continue to support and work with the Municipal District to seek additional funding for both the town and district.

The background to the tabling of the motion was the lodging of a series of complaints since the start of October by the Main Street Business Initiative group opposing the permanent removal of 21 parking spaces when the street is revamped under the Regeneration Scheme and a further six spaces that were removed in temporary footpath build outs constructed during the Covid pandemic.

The group has lodged complaints regarding the Regeneration Scheme funding application and planning process to the Department of Rural & Community Development, Office of the Planning Regulator and in the past week the Southern Regional Assembly. The MBI has indicated it will lodge a complaint to the Public Sector Ombudsman in December.

The four councillors who tabled the motion voiced fears the Carrick-on-Suir Regeneration Scheme funding is now in jeopardy and the town and district will have difficulty in the future in securing funding for other projects.

Messages condemned
They also condemned “nasty” and “outrageous” text messages they had received ahead of the meeting with one councillor describing them as intimidation.

When the motion was tabled Labour councillor Michael ‘Chicken’ Brennan, who has met with the MBI’s members during his General Election campaign and urged the Council to re-enter talks with the group, questioned whether it was legally correct to table the motion.

He said he was informed at the last Municipal District meeting that he couldn’t discuss anything about the issue due to the complaints lodged over the Carrick Regeneration Scheme.

He said he asked questions about the parking issue and didn’t believe he got enough answers. He contended that if councillors had to respect the complaints process then the motion should be withdrawn to await the outcome of the complaints.

Cllr Brennan expressed the view that the Council was creating bad will in the community and appealed to the local authority to talk to the MBI group once more and “find a path of mediation”.

Cllr Imelda Goldsboro, the motion’s seconder, said Carrick received funding of over €17.5m for the betterment of the town and its people.

She expressed concern the MBI’s complaints would prevent the town from securing further funding and from being looked upon favourably for funding. She noted Tipperary is a big county and other towns such as Cahir were looking for funding allocations.

The Fianna Fáil councillor and General Election candidate said during her canvas of Carrick-on-Suir she went into businesses on Main Street and only one person raised parking with her.

She pointed out that in the two hours prior to the meeting she received a “very nasty” text and she was “appalled” by its contents.

Carrick Cllr Dunne, the motion’s proposer, strenuously disputed Cllr Brennan's assertion that he was told not to attend a meeting organised by the MBI in September and called on him to withdraw the remark. “Nobody tells me what to do, nobody. I am my own man. I was called into work that night,” he declared.

He insisted that he had stood up for the Main Street and the town’s businesses all his life.

He said Carrick was neglected for many years. They were told it was a forgotten town but it wasn’t forgotten anymore thanks to the Regeneration Scheme and they were already seeing the benefits in the works carried out in Sean Healy Park and the Castle Field.

The Sinn Féin councillor recalled that after he voted against the Carrick Regeneration Scheme planning application two years ago, the Director of Services promised the Council would offset the car parking the Main Street was losing.

Extra parking created

The Council was doing this by creating 10 new parking spaces at Strand Lane Car Park. This was less than a minute’s walk from Main Street. The Council was also developing a new car park at Stable Lane.

He declared he wanted investment for his town.

“I am ambitious for my town. I want every business in Carrick to rise together and the only way to do that is to get investment.”

An angry Fianna Fáil Cllr Kieran Bourke echoed Cllr Dunne's comments about people in Carrick saying the town used to get nothing. He said now the town had massive funding and the Council had said it would meet with each individual to address their concerns.

He recalled during the Regeneration Scheme planning application process he argued and argued that the loss of parking on Main Street would be detrimental to its small businesses and voted against the application, which was passed by 60% of the district’s councillors.

Two Main Street business owners engaged with him before the planning application was passed and he was involved in collecting a petition of traders opposing the loss of parking. He claimed the vast majority of people involved in the MBI never engaged at that time.

He recalled he stormed out of the council meeting in anger when the planning application was passed and went away and sulked but accepted the democratic decision. He was also involved in the Save Sean Healy Park action group’s judicial review challenge over the Regeneration Scheme proposal for a car park on part of the park.

Cllr Bourke pointed out the Main Street traders had the chance to also do this at that time but they never did. He argued the Sean Healy Park group ran their campaign the right way by engaging about their issue before planning was passed not two years later.

He explained he had changed his view on the Regeneration Scheme now because he saw the benefit it was having on the town and he honestly believed the businesses concerned won’t be affected.

He expressed concern the Council couldn’t now submit an application for €2m funding to redevelop a co-op site in Carrickbeg because of the complaints.

Cllr Bourke pointed out he was a Main Street property owner, and just one business had come to him to talk about the loss of parking on the street.

He claimed there were umpteen traders on the street who told him privately they welcomed the Regeneration Scheme but were afraid to put their head above the parapet.

And he roundly condemned what he regarded as intimidation he was subjected to since he came into the meeting.

He read out the contents of a WhatsApp message that accused the council of being “rotten to the core”; claimed a section of the community was being disenfranchised just like Nazi Germany in the 1930s, and made an allegation against the director of services.

“Shame on them,” he declared. “I am an elected member of this particular council and I am certainly not rotten to the core.” He also rejected a claim he had “sold out” the traders and insisted he did everything he could for them two years ago but got no help.

Cllr Bourke defended the Director Services pointing out that nothing was happening with the town until he came and started making things happen.

He also defended five individuals, whom he described as “unsung heroes” who had worked tirelessly for the town as he believed they were also referred to in the message.

Cathaoirleach Cllr Mark Fitzgerald also fully supported the motion and, like Cllr Bourke objected to assertions made that councillors had “sold out” the Main Street. “I am sixth generation in business. I would never in a month of Sundays ever jeopardise any business or livelihood.”

Cllr Brennan told his fellow councillors there was no need to raise their voices in any discussions and reiterated that what he was looking for was the Council to sit down and talk to the group.

Director of Services Brian Beck explained the Council couldn’t engage with the MBI once they lodged the complaints. “They made the decision to lodge the complaints. We have to engage in the complaints process,” he said.

Mr Beck said the Council staff worked on behalf of the district’s businesses and communities and were trying to bring as much money as possible into the district and Carrick town.

He pointed out Council staff now had to respond to a number of complaint processes. These staff were being pulled away from other work such as preparations for the upcoming Tractors & Tudors Christmas Festival.

Mr Beck said Council staff worked on behalf of the district's businesses and communities and were trying to bring as much money as possible into the district and Carrick town.

He expressed concern about the “nature of the language” being used to talk about Carrick publicly and found it really frustrating when people talked down a great town.

Mr Beck said the messages going out were there was a problem in Carrick-on-Suir, “don't give us the money” and also don’t come to Carrick because there is a problem with car parking.

He explained to Cllr Brennan that he wasn’t allowed to speak on the issue at the last meeting because the councillor had wanted to ask about the complaints, which the Council couldn’t talk about. This motion wasn’t about the complaints.

He understood the elected members were reiterating their support of two years ago and mandating the executive.

Cllr Brennan once again asked the Council to meet with the MBI and Mr Beck reiterated that he had already explained it was inappropriate to do so. 

Cllr Brennan responded that he was only bringing back to the council what he was hearing on the street.

Cllr Bourke, meanwhile, called on Cllr Brennan to disassociate himself with the “outrageous” comments councillors had received and said he had no doubt that if MBI members knew they were being made on their behalf they would be shocked.

Cllr Brennan said he wasn’t happy with those words and gave a commitment to address the issue with the group but insisted he was standing with the MBI.

The debate ended with Cllr Brennan indicating he wasn’t supporting the motion. 

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Labour candidate hears Carrick-on-Suir traders' views on plans for Main St. parking

MBI group members voice their fears about negative impact the removal of parking spaces will have on their businesses with Cllr Michael 'Chicken' Brennan, who also hears some traders support the Carrick Regeneration Scheme plans