The towns of Ballinrobe and Claremorris were given a boost in the run up to Christmas this week, with the news that both towns will see free parking introduced in a number of areas in the towns for the festive season.
In Claremorris there will be free parking daily until 1pm in all Mayo County Council controlled car parks, while the car park at the railway station will be free all day every day. In Ballinrobe there will be free parking also up to 1pm in all the council controlled car parks, while the car park at the parish centre will have free parking up to 4pm daily.
The original motion before the committee had called for all car parking charges to be suspended both on and off street in both towns, but following discussions between councillors, council officials, and the Chambers of Commerce an agreement was reached that was acceptable to all.
Senior executive officer for Mayo County Council, Padraig Flanagan, outlined the plans to the members, which at the time did not include the free parking until 4pm in Ballinrobe outside the parish centre which was then proposed by Cllr Michael Burke and seconded by Cllr Damien Ryan.
However Cllr Patsy O’Brien did say he was disappointed that on street parking was not free and he said he would have liked to have seen it free for even half the day. He told the meeting that. “In relation to Ballinrobe specifically on the on street parking, there are people paying rates and they are at their wits’ end, and if were even able to give them half a day it would have been a great boost.”
Independent councillor Richard Finn told the meeting the free parking was something that had to be done to help out local businesses. “In order to give these people a chance against the big supermarkets and so on, free parking is something we had to do. The big supermarkets offer free parking so people are going there rather than to their smaller local shop and it is serious to their business.”
