Castlebar town manager Seamus Granahan told the June meeting of Castlebar Town Council there are a number of parking issues on the refurbished Main Street in the town still to be finalised in the coming weeks. He said he was looking at bringing draft bye laws in relation to taxi ranks before the members in the near future.
“We are looking at bringing new bye laws in front of you, which would change the taxi rank parking on the Main Street,” Mr Granahan told the meeting. “One of the things we are looking at is leaving the rank on Main Street where it is during the day and assigning new spaces in the car parks to taxi ranks.” The rank is currently located on the top of Main Street on the left hand side. But rather than put in more spaces for taxis on the street full time, the council is looking at the possibility of having some parking spaces becoming taxi spaces in the evening time. The Town Manager continued saying. “We’re also looking at in the evening time making more of the parking spaces on the street into a taxi rank between certain hours, creating more space for the taxis in the town.” Mr Granahan said the council was looking at having only 30 minute parking on the Main Street and a 10 minute parking limit at the junction of Ellison Street and the Mall, near John O’Donnell’s chemist, so people could get in and get out quickly if they need to get something.
Independent councillor Michael Kilcoyne also asked about the number of disabled spaces that would be allocated on the street when the works are completed as he said there used to be three spaces and now there only seemed to be two. Mr Granahan told him that the full markings had yet to be completed but there would be at least three disabled parking spaces marked out when the works were completed.
