The Council proposes to reduce dramatically the number of parking spaces outside residents' homes along Davitt Street in the town. Although there appear to be no accident or speed violation statistics, the changes are being justified on the basis of "traffic calming". As residents try to think about where they can park if the moves go ahead, people are talking about the walking distances that would be involved for small children or elderly people, among other problems they will face.
Residents first learned of the plans in 2015 when hard-to-decipher planning notices began to appear along the street.
As part of a delegation to a Municipal Council meeting in March 2015, local resident Noreen Morey questioned whether there was a need for traffic calming at all. “The Roads Authority says that traffic calming results in greater safety by reducing speed and, therefore, the frequency of collisions. I wonder how many drivers have been caught speeding and now many collisions actually occur at the moment on the road” she said to Councillors and officials. Noreen also reminded those in attendance that the roundabout at Dunnes operates as an effective speed reducing measure.
Noreen also said “there is no alternative parking available on any of the adjacent streets. Fuel delivery and waste collection trucks will halt traffic into the town for 15 minutes or more”.
Another resident, Mary Margaret Ryan, also addressed the meeting and told Councillors and officials that most people do not have rear access to their houses and the street is the only way they have of parking and dropping off family members, especially young children. “If you take away our street parking, residents will have to drop off children or elderly family members either in the traffic or at a location that means they will have to walk some distance and cross the road to their home”. Mary Margaret also told the meeting that local business owners had asked whether the NRA wanted to “close their businesses altogether” as customers would have no place to park.
At the meeting, all seven Councillors praised the residents for their thorough preparation of their case and supported the residents’ point of view. However, at a meeting in July of that year, a majority of Councillors voted to approve the development plan.
The meeting was told that the total number of parking spaces would reduce from 73 to 65 (a reduction of 8 spaces). Under the amended plan, there are two additional pedestrian crossings. Each of these requires the loss of 4 parking spaces. That accounts for the alleged total of 8 spaces lost. However, the drawings for the plan that have been put out to tender show up to 19 “build outs” (essentially an extension outward of the footpath). These will take parking spaces away, with some of them taking multiple spaces. The conclusion that only 8 spaces will be lost does not appear to align with the published plan. Any casual glance along Davitt Street will show that almost all spaces are occupied (as shown in the image above).
Although the residents were always in favour of the resurfacing of the road, they are greatly concerned that the plan to reduce the parking spaces will now go ahead and they are going to lose the ability to park near their homes, something they rely on so much.
"Local democracy is dead"
One resident said "local democracy is dead. We did all of the right things to get our strong views across. It made absolutely no difference. The Council is going to do what it wanted to do, no matter what we think. We live here and will have to put up with this, but officials and councillors who live elsewhere can impose these ridiculous decisions on our lives".
