A chara, – Just as Dún Laoghaire begins to turn the corner towards economic recovery, with fewer unoccupied shops and great hopes for new developments involving our town and harbour, comes the news that Dún Laoghaire Rathdown Council are to be the party spoilers. They have commenced a public consultation on their proposed 33.3 per cent increases in on-street parking charges and additional increases across other public parking arrangements, including residential parking permits. The town’s economic decline can be traced back many years, to even before the boom and bust the whole country experienced, and had its roots in, among other factors, the initial introduction of parking charges on our streets.
Instead of increasing parking charges our council should be decreasing them and thus encouraging more business to our town. There should be a level playing field with the increasing number of shopping plazas, Aldi, Lidl, etc, offering free and easy two-hour parking. The public consultation is open for submissions until January 31st. – Is mise,
BREASAL Ó CAOLLAÍ,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.