Dun Laoghaire brought to a standstill

I read the article When a Town Shuts up Shop.

The writer did not see the bigger picture. It is not just the recession that is “ruining businesses” in Dun Laoghaire. The town has endured a decade of bad planning and no planning.

Since 2008, we have endured chronic parking regulations. Parking enforcement in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown was granted to a private company, APCOA, with the proviso that it would get 44,000 tickets per year. The town was marked out for pay-and-display bays and yellow lines put everywhere.

Enter the “parking militia”, and boy did they do a good job. Fifteen wardens were sent out each day to get a minimum of 16 tickets each. Mothers dropping children to school got tickets; the elderly collecting their pensions got tickets; funerals were targeted; and life in our town changed. People stopped visiting the town. Shopping habits changed.

People went where there were no parking charges. Women stopped meeting their friends for coffee. Who wants a €2 coffee when there is the danger of getting a €40 fine for being a couple of minutes late back to the car? Everyone was now “watching the meter”.

In the past 20 years, our council has not provided any carparks — that is for the public.

Now, at the town hall, Harbour Square, and at Dun Laoghaire Harbour, there is “free parking” for the council officials. So, the people who make the rules and enforce the rules never have to pay for, or worry about, parking. They don’t have a problem, so there isn’t a problem.

Meanwhile, the shoppers, and clients of solicitors, doctors, accountants, etc, are voting with their feet. We no longer have customers coming to town.

And if you thought that was enough... well, it’s not. The bright sparks at the town hall think it would be a great idea to divide the town into nine zones, with residents only allowed to park in two to three streets with their parking permit — everywhere else costs €2 per hour. So we now have a town in which its residents don’t have free movement.

And if the businesses don’t have customers, they can’t pay rates. It’s quite logical, if one thinks about it. But, unfortunately, the councillors who vote for the budget in December cannot see that it would be better to collect €14m in rates than a measly €3.4m for parking, and have a bustling town.

Empty buildings don’t pay rates.

Rate payers and residents must cry stop before everything is destroyed.

Ann Joyce

Dun Laoghaire Community Association

Co Dublin