Kildare County Council informed about parking issues in Kilcock

The matter was raised via a joint motion by councillors

Parking issues in one Kilcock region have been raised by a number of councillors representing the Clane-Maynooth Municipal District (MD).

A joint motion was heard at the latest MD meeting, which took place on Friday, October 4 last.

Cllrs  Naoise Ó Cearúil (Fianna Fáil), Paul Ward (Fianna Fáil), Angela Feeney (Labour Party), Peter Melrose (Social Democrats)  and Tim Durkan (Fine Gael) were the representatives who submitted the motion to Kildare County Council (KCC) at the meeting.

The motion, which was seconded by Cllr Ward, read as follows: "That the council works on creating a solution to the parking issues in Kilcock by re- opening lease negotiations with the land-owner of the previous Park-and-Ride facility, or finds an alternative solution."

In response, KCC told the representatives: "The lease on the car park in Kilcock was terminated by the owner in November 2023. 

"The Transport Department have examined a number of other potential sites which have not proven viable but are willing to explore other options in this regard."

 KCC added: "It is noted that the volume of transactions on this car park was quite low and KCC was running the car park at a significant deficit."

Speaking further on the motion, Cllr Ward said: "This has been going on for about 18 months now... [a lot of] people who are working in the town have nowhere to park."

Cllr Ward suggested a review of the parking Bye-Laws, adding: "It can't continue as it is."

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Cllr Durkan told KCC: "Businesses in Kilcock are struggling; staff and customers have nowhere to park."

He also suggested that a review of the Bye-Laws was needed in order to effectively address the issue.

A representative of KCC asked the representatives: "Do we want a Park-and-Ride, or do we want town parking?"

They also said: "I understand that the town has gotten busier, and we will look into the Bye-Laws  [in relation to potentially  resolving the matter.]"

The representative of KCC added: "In terms of a timescale: I cannot say at present."

They added that the land-owner terminated the lease back in November 2023.

They further said: "In addition, we would have to look at all of the issues together; we certainly accept that a suitable parking location is a difficulty   [at present]. With the members agreement, we can have a meeting before Christmas to discuss the  Bye-Laws."

Cllr Ó Cearúil then made a series of suggestions: that a motion would be marked for next month's MD meeting to discuss the matter further; for KCC to return to the members with a projected timeline; for KCC to meet with the Cllrs and the local business community on site to discuss the issues; and for KCC to contact the previous owner of the Park-and-Ride facility in order to open up negotiations with them.

The members and KCC agreed to implement Cllr Ó Cearúil's  suggestions.