Martin felt mugged at meeting over parking charges.

Speaking at last week's monthly meeting of Westport Town Council, on

the issue of on-street parking charges, Labour's Cllr Keith Martin

agreed with Fianna Fail's Brendan Mulroy who accused Fine Gael of

"doing a U-turn" in relation to the introduction of parking charges in

the town.

Having backed the provision of on-street parking charges in the budget

Fine Gael councillors along with Independent Martin Keane underwent a

dramatic "damascan conversion" and withdrew their support from the

byelaws, leaving council officials and Cllrs Mulroy and Martin bemused

and astonished at this sudden change of mind.

Speaking at the meeting in relation to Fine Gael's volte face Cllr

Martin told the councillors that "I myself feel like I've been mugged

and have ended up with two wallets!"

Cllr Martin and Cllr Mulroy were the only councillors to vote against

the 2011 Town Council budget proposals for on-street parking. The

budget, which included a €150,000 provision of income was passed by

all five Fine Gael Councillors and Independent Cllr Martin Keane.

In relation to allegations of "scaremongering" made by Cllrs Hyland

and Gannon in relation to the proposed charges Cllr Martin challenged

that "sometimes you should be scared!"

During the meeting Cllr Martin also promised that he and Cllr Mulroy

would be introducing a byelaw to enforce residents only parking in the

Crescent.

Cllr Martin went on say it was unfair of Fine Gael to point the finger

of blame in the direction of the Town Manager and his staff saying

that the executive "were only carrying out the wishes" of Fine Gael

who voted for the provision of on-street parking charges in the 2011

Budget.

Cllr Martin continued, "good town planning and good retail planning

dictate that parking charges are only introduced to facilitate the

free flow of traffic and to ensure the availability and turnover

parking spaces.

It should never be about raising revenue and should never be used to

implement a tax on car users.

Historically Westport is a retail town and steps have already been

taken to ensure parking turnover by reducing on-street parking from

two hours to one.

We have a number of large scale shopping centres with another about to

open shortly which provide free parking and the introduction now of

parking fees will detract from shopping on our main streets.

There are several towns throughout Ireland as Cllr Mulroy has already

pointed out where the introduction of parking charges has destroyed

town centre shopping so it is important to remember that these charges

are not 100% effective and positive as they have been portrayed by

management.

The arguments in relation to including the Crescent estate in the

parking byelaws are feeble at best. If the council was genuine in its

concerns for the residents it would have proposed to make the area

residents only by way of this byelaw.

That is a sure and simple method of protecting the residents of the

Crescent from the "errant motorists" parking there all day.

The Crescent is a housing estate and not a street and not a car park,

it should be protected by a byelaw in this manner.

The residents of the Crescent were already sold a lemon in the last

decade when they were promised parking permits. They bought their

permits but they were not backed up by byelaws or enforcement and were

not worth the paper they were written on.

In relation to comparing Westport with other towns with on-street

parking none of them are comparable to Westport which has a unique

welcome and is a unique tourism product.

Just because Tourists expect to pay is no reason to charge them for parking.

Charging for parking on Bridge Street is a tax on doing business on

Bridge Street that does not occur if you shop at any of the large

supermarkets in the area.

My opposition to on-street parking charges is about providing a level

playing field for all businesses. It's about protecting the residents

of the Crescent by prohibiting parking not by facilitating it.

That is why Cllr Mulroy and I will be introducing a byelaw before this

council to enforce residents only parking in the Crescent."