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Lynch welcomes progress on residents’ parking in Cork city centre

Issued : Thursday 16 July, 2009

The recently published Ombudsman highlighted a number of cases where her intervention resulted in a positive outcome for the complainants, including one involving Cork City Council.

It was the view of the Ombudsman that there were inconsistencies in relation to the refusal of the Cork City Council to grant parking permits to residents of apartment buildings in the centre of Cork City. The council accepted her interpretation and subsequently amended its policy making it possible to issue of parking permits to apartment dwellers.

Welcoming the Ombudsman’s report Ciarán Lynch said: “The ban on issuing parking permits was ludicrous in the first place, and was never going to work. While the Council has always maintained that the city centre should be a vibrant, residential area, creating a situation where car-owners could not park their cars near their own homes, was always going to discourage people from actually living there.

“The ban on issuing permits to residents was a grossly unfair measure by the Council. It was the Council who, in the first place, actually granted the planning permission for these developments, despite the fact that the number of car parking spaces provided for, was nowhere near sufficient. In fact the council compounded the problem by actually allowing for the sale on the open market, of the car parking spaces, to people other than those living in the apartment complexes.

“I very much welcome the work that the Ombudsman did on this issue, and the progress that has been made as a result and I am now advising residents who were originally refused parking by the city council to re-apply for their parking permits immediately.”