*Bill Slattery and Donogh O’Loughlin. Photograph: John Mangan
BUSINESSES IN LAHINCH will struggle if proposed parking fees are enforced in the coastal town but one long-standing retailer has vowed that the local authority will not shut down his enterprise.
Proposals are currently on public display that would see changes to how parking is enforced in Fanore, Spanish Point, White Strand, Kilkee, Doolin and Lahinch.
Under the draft bye-laws, the Miltown Malbay Rd car park in Lahinch would now be subject to ticketing along with the Main Street, Church Street and Rue D’Arzon in Lahinch. An increase in fees at the Liscannor Rd car park and the promenade car park in Lahinch.
Donogh O’Loughlin who has a long-established drapery business on the main street of Lahinch was aghast at the proposals. “We’re here since 1890 which is a long time, there was an agreement with Clare County Council twenty years ago that we would have free parking on one side of the street for staff and people living on the street down in the Liscannor Rd car park, seemingly that has changed and now they want to bring in charges which will have a detrimental effect on all businesses plus people living in this town.
“If I had a good few people employed I would have to up their wages so much to cover their car parking, I won’t go into the commercial rates, where is all the money going that Clare County Council are earning from Lahinch, it is supposed to be spent in Lahinch but it hasn’t been, people are pretty cheesed off with car parking charges everywhere, the Cliffs of Moher, Doolin, Spanish Point and Lahinch, it is not fair and this country needs to wake up. I heard one councillor say tourists will pay for it but our tourists are mainly Irish, everybody has to earn a living, our so-called tourists are coming from Limerick, Ennis and Dublin, they are Irish and are now being asked to pay while they are parking here to go to mass or for a swim, it is not fair. It will put some business people under extreme pressure to either pack it up or move on”.
Whatever proposals are implemented, Donogh was adamant that it would force the end of his business. “Clare County Council on the rates alone are making enough money out of Lahinch, they don’t need to be screwing everybody. What’s more, a lot of people coming from Dublin like to come to a country area where they don’t have to be looking for a car-parking charge, it’s going to have a huge affect on our community, not to talk about business people. I’ll ride this out, we’ve been here for 130 years so Clare County Council certainly won’t close me down”.
At its peak there were ten employees in O’Loughlin’s but his current staff are worried on what impact the fees would have on them. “I’ve one staff member with me for forty years, she’s worried about her parking charges, I can’t walk that far anymore, I’m asked to pay huge rates and on top of that €200 to park my car, I just hope councillors listen to what has been said. Bill Slattery is out there acting for our own good in Lahinch, I don’t hear of anyone else, there’s pollution happening everywhere around us, this country needs to wake up and sooner rather than later because tourists are being fleeced. I’ve seen car rentals in Shannon and it goes on and on, here another thing on top of it is car parking charges”.
He added, “Luckily enough there isn’t too many people living on the main street, some people come down to mass every morning. We don’t see police except for breakfast in the morning, we’ve traffic wardens who have a big job to do. It will definitely have an effect on local business people and people living in the area, there is no doubt about it. I paid €6 to park my car in Shannon Airport for twenty five minutes today, that is just a sample”.
David Cody has for the past eight and a half years been co-owner of Daybreak on Lahinch’s main street. Though he felt the charges could potentially aid his business, he believed the introduction of fees in areas that they were not before was not justified. “Paid parking would probably improve business because it would mean people aren’t leaving their cars but I’m more concerned about the locals, I think it is very unfair. We’re after a quite summer because the weather was so bad, it’s going to be a long quite winter and there is no other coastal place around that charges in the winter never mind on the main street for the locals, I think it is massively greedy from the Council, I don’t think it is right. If anyone wants to come down and get lunch or dinner in some place on the main street you will have to pay for parking, it is overkill, there has to be free parking in Lahinch all-year round and not just in the winter, it is not fair”.
Nenagh native David added, “Most of the visitors pay for parking down on the front anyway, a lot of them are cute and they know you have two hours free here on the main street so they will pull up here and so do the surfers which is great. It is a small village, the population of Lahinch in the winter time is only a couple of hundred, you’re not going to in any other small villlage putting paid parking in the winter because you can’t people won’t pay it and they don’t have traffic wardens, it is a small village in the winter which becomes a town in the summer for the couple of months but the population is too small. It is overkill, it is greedy and I don’t think it should go ahead”.
Cody concluded, “The one thing Lahinch does need is a loading bay because it is an absolute disaster, there is a set-down down below but you need a specific loading bay for delivery lads because you see lorries pulling in all over the place and the traffic wardens are always out warning them. I was on the road myself for ten years, I know what it is like you will throw it in anywhere, if there is no place to park you will fire it up on a footpath or wherever but that is another thing. The paid parking won’t affect my business, it will affect the cafes and bars doing food and the clothes shops because they spend longer in these places than a grocery shop but I think it is unfair on the locals to pay for parking to come down to have a bite to eat”.
