Cork City Council has agreed to extend free parking incentive in its two publicly owned car parks to encourage more people into the city centre amid claims that an afternoon ban on private cars is affecting city centre businesses.
Fianna Fáil Cllr Tim Brosnan had called for an immediate suspension of the 3-6pm ban on private cars on the city’s main thoroughfare Patrick Street from now until after mid January amid claims from several city centre traders that the car ban was having a disastrous effect on business.
But the overwhelming majority of traders were in favour of the ban on private cars after hearing that the move which was aimed at giving priority to bus movements across the city centre had resulted in improved bus travel times and increased usage of public transport.
Moreover, they backed a proposal from Cork City chief executive Ann Doherty drawn up in conjunction with the Core group which represents retail and hospitality interests, Bus Éireann, An Garda Síochána and Cork City Council, to extend free parking measures to attract more people into the city by night.
“Late evening shopping is an important part of the offering in a modern city and serves not only to better meet the needs of more shoppers but also improve animation and broaden the attractiveness of the city centre to the benefit of all businesses,” she said.
Detailed figures
It was with this in mind that she was proposing the provision of free parking from 5pm to 9.30pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at the council owned Paul Street and North Main Street car parks which together have more than 1,100 parking space and councillors agreed to the proposal.
Cork City Council director of services roads and transportation Gerry O’Beirne prepared a report in which he detailed figures from Bus Éireann. These showed a 14 per cent year on year increase in numbers using the company’s services in the city since the introduction of the private car ban on August 9th.
According to Mr O’Beirne, Bus Éireann estimates that it had carried 311,000 more passengers on its services in the 12-week period from August 9th to October 31st, compared to the same period in 2017 when private cars were allowed on Patrick Street with journey times on city centre routes improving.
Cllr Brosnan had called for a suspension of the private car ban, saying that the feedback he was getting from some traders was that “everything is not rosy in the garden”. And he would like some hard data on footfall to allow councillors evaluate the merit of the Patrick Street car ban.
He said there was ambiguity about its impact with some traders suggesting it was having a detrimental impact. And there was clear confusion about its enforcement in that some days it was being enforced and other days it was not and in those circumstances it should be suspended until after Christmas.
However, virtually every other councillor who spoke urged support for the Patrick Street private car ban with Cllr Ted Tynan of the Workers Party suggesting Cork follow the example of Dunkirk in France which had seen footfall increase hugely after it introduced free bus services for all accessing the city centre.
Car ban
Cllr Chris O’Leary of Sinn Féin who chaired the Core group said that taking cars out of the city centre was the way forward and he criticised some traders who seemed to be seeking to get the city council to indemnify them against any loss in business due to the private car ban.
Cllr Des Cahill of Fine Gael pointed out several surveys had found that more than 60 per cent of traffic going through Cork city centre was not stopping there but simply using it as an access route. So it made sense to introduce an afternoon private car ban to give priority to public transport into and form the city centre.
Cllr Tom O’Driscoll of Fianna Fáil said he believed that the reported drop in trade by some businesses was more complex than just the private car ban on Patrick Street. And he pointed to the fact that increasingly people and especially young people are opting to shop online.
