Waterford pensioners ‘cannot feel comfortable’ amid ‘clear shortage of parking’
Cllr Kate O’Mahoney spoke on the subject at the May plenary meeting of Waterford City and County Council
Pensioners in County Waterford “cannot feel comfortable” driving to urban centres due to the “clear shortage of parking”, a council meeting has heard.
Sinn Féin councillor Kate O’Mahoney spoke on the subject at the May plenary meeting of Waterford City and County Council.
Cllr O’Mahoney said: “Can we get a full breakdown of the number of locations of age-friendly parking spaces currently available across Waterford city and county?
“There’s a clear shortage of parking across Waterford, particularly accessible and age-friendly spaces.
“Some older residents have contacted me to say that they cannot feel comfortable as there is not suitable parking in our town centres for shopping, meeting appointments and other day to day activities.”
She went on to say that the council’s development plan provides a clear mandate for the provision of age-friendly car parking spaces.
“The development plan identifies accessible and age-friendly infrastructure as a key priority in creating cohesive, sustainable communities where older people can continue to live independently and remain active in community life.
“Age friendly parking is essential to this. It ensures older residents can safely and conveniently access essential services, social activities and public spaces.”
In response to Cllr O’Mahoney, Director of Services Gabriel Hynes explained the action the council executive is taking on the issue.
Mr Hynes said: “Just in relation to the city, we are currently undertaking a review of parking in the city just in relation to capacities and what we have and what we need.
“Part of that review will be looking at examining the amount of age-friendly parking we have and the amount of disabled parking we have.
“In relation to our second urban centre in Dungarvan, we got additional spaces there over the past number of years but certainly we can review it again in relation to what the appropriate needs are there. We can do a similar exercise in Tramore.”
He concluded by calling on the elected members to bring their suggestions to the executive of where they think more age-friendly parking spaces are necessary.