Pay and Display for Greystones Village

ian_m

Introduction of Pay and Display around Greystones by Wicklow County Council

info here...
http://www.wicklow.ie/roads/Greystones%20Parking%20Control%20Scheme%20Bye%20Notes.pdf
http://www.wicklow.ie/roads/0187-C-1000revB.pdf

Is this really necessary?

burnaby

It's absolutely unnecessary imho.

However, 'necessity' is entirely subjective.

Pay & display might be beneficial, particularly on Mill Road opposite the library, where many motorists park all day, despite a 2 hour limit. If it identifies these offenders, and gets them to use the free park and ride car park, it might be a good thing.

I heard last year that one of the Town Councillors wanted to introduce charges for use of the P&R carpark behind Gressytones council offices. That would be far worse than P&D in the town. Hopefully, any councillor who argues in favour of such a development will be appropriately rewarded at the next local election.

Perhaps pay and display, with the first 15 minutes free, so that we can pop into the shop for a newspaper DVD / stamp etc.

mikedragon32

15 minutes grace is very hard to enforce. It means that the P&D area has to be constantly monitored, whereas if it was a small fee it's not so bad.

TBH, popping into the shop/xtravision/chippers or whatever is contributing to some traffic problems in the village. People just seem to ignore any road markings and park on the pavements just because they're "nipping into the shops". A grace period only encourages this.

P&D isn't necessarily bad, but it shouldn't be too expensive.

Mitch Connor

mikedragon32 wrote:

15 minutes grace is very hard to enforce. It means that the P&D area has to be constantly monitored, whereas if it was a small fee it's not so bad.

TBH, popping into the shop/xtravision/chippers or whatever is contributing to some traffic problems in the village. People just seem to ignore any road markings and park on the pavements just because they're "nipping into the shops". A grace period only encourages this.

P&D isn't necessarily bad, but it shouldn't be too expensive.

i think all they need to do is enforce the current parking restrictions, ie. fine/clamp/tow people who park on the double yellows or what not in the town, encouraging them to use the fairly big, mostly underused and above all fairly cheap carpark that is part of the meridian point.

From memory, the first hour or half hour is free.

mikedragon32

Very valid point Tauren, enforcing the current regs would be a great start.

It's an hour free in Meridian.

Seion

I live and work just outside Greystones and sometimes I think 'pay and display' is a great idea. I'm not normally in favour of paying any more taxes to a government that's usually pretty inept at spending, but in this instance, I don't think it's about the money - it's about the fact that when given the choice, people have already proven that they will selfishly choose to suit themselves. The carrot approach has been tried, and now it's time for the stick.

To the best of my knowledge, all the car spaces in the village have a two hour limit but that's laughably abused. Greystones mainstreet is a small road crammed with cars most of the time, most of which seem to be left parked for the full day. By 8am most of the 'free' spaces are gone as people park as close to the Dart station as they can and then go to work for the day.

The town has grown massively and now every parking space is occupied all the time, and I would guess this makes it hard for the shops in the town because their walk-by business has to be effected by this. It's not as if there isn't a perfectly good park and ride facility but nobody wants to use it. I would have no problem throwing 50 cent into the meter if I want to go to the bank or the post office in the middle of my working day.

As the previous poster said, I now mostly use the Meridian Point as it's free for an hour. Even so, Greystones is only going to grow even more than it already has and there has to be some management applied to this problem.

loyatemu

currently regulations aren't enforced because there is no full-time parking warden. The charges will pay for enforcement.

That said I can't see the point in forcing people to pay to use (for example) the south beach car park on a Saturday - I take the kids to the playground there regularly and it is never full. Does anyone know if the draft proposals were accepted or if there were any amendments?

cheers

pay and display is not a bad idea for the town centre for obvious reasons but i think putting it along the sea front is a bit much.

ian_m

cheers wrote:

pay and display is not a bad idea for the town centre for obvious reasons but i think putting it along the sea front is a bit much.

If it is introduced in the village then cars will move to the free areas and the seafront would be packed. So if it is introduced to one area it has to be introduced into the surrounding areas. This avoids cars spilling into the periphery of the pay and display areas.

I think there should be more enforcement of the rules that exist now. Strict two hour parking only. Even reducing that to one hour and a parking warden constantly patrolling the area.

I don't agree with pay and display. Its merely a money maker for the council. Before we know it, there will be clamper's disabling our vehicles behind our backs. We pay enough for our cars, our insurance and our road tax. Let alone the privilege of parking on the streets of our neighbourhood. Even people who live on the proposed pay and display streets will have to pay for the privilege of parking outside THEIR OWN HOMES by means of a permit. Its not right.

mikedragon32

If people didn't abuse the privilege we'd have no worries!

ian_m

Councillors were informed this week that the pay parking operation in Greystones is to be put out to tender shortly.

Sparks

To be fair, most of those abusing the privilege are doing so because of the complete lack of security in the P&R car park. That, or they drive into Bray (which is what I do when coming into town from Greystones).

fishdog

To be fair, most of those abusing the privilege are doing so because of the complete lack of security in the P&R car park. That, or they drive into Bray (which is what I do when coming into town from Greystones).

Me too!

ian_m

Sparks wrote: »

To be fair, most of those abusing the privilege are doing so because of the complete lack of security in the P&R car park. That, or they drive into Bray (which is what I do when coming into town from Greystones).

Thats another issue that needs to be addressed. Although parking there (P&R) shall remain free.