BY DIONNE MEEHAN
DONEGAL County Council is set to meet with businesses in Ballybofey to discuss parking regulations in the town.
This comes following an online discussion at the weekend where there seemed to be a lot of confusion around what the grace period is for a parked car without a ticket, before fines can be applied by traffic wardens.
Speaking to the Donegal News, Cathaoirleach of the Lifford Stranorlar Municipal District, Patrick McGowan confirmed there is a grace period of ten minutes.
“There is ten minutes grace and it is not at the discretion of the traffic warden, it has absolutely nothing to do with him.
“That ten minutes grace is to allow you to go and get a ticket. If you happen to go and get a cup of coffee or a newspaper instead of a ticket then nothing can be done about that.
“However, there is no grace on parking in a disabled bay, a footpath or a double yellow line,” he said.
Nonetheless, local businesses are calling for the grace period to be extended to 30 minutes.
A petition on change.org titled ‘Help get 30 minutes free parking in Ballybofey’ reached nearly 500 signatures in the first 24 hours of being created.
One petition signer wrote; “The parking situation in the town is terrible. It is putting people off shopping here when we should be encouraging and sustaining our town. The whole parking in the town needs reviewed.”
Another wrote; “Change is needed in order to support the businesses and the local population of the Twin Towns.”
Commenting on this, Cllr McGowan said the loss of revenue resulting from the 30 minutes free parking would mean the Christmas lights money and the street sweeping money would be cut.
“The reason Ballybofey get street sweeping is because they pay for it out of the parking charges,” he said.
However, Cllr McGowan has agreed to arrange a meeting with the Pay and Display Parking Unit situated in Letterkenny, to first meet the chamber and then meet the affected businesses.
At the meeting the businesses will also get a chance to voice their issues.
Receive quality journalism wherever you are, on any device. Keep up to date from the comfort of your own home with a digital subscription.
Any time | Any place | Anywhere
SUBSCRIBE TO CURRENT EDITION TODAY
and get access to our archive editions dating back to 2007(CLICK ON THE TITLE BELOW TO SUBSCRIBE)