Andrew Carey
andrew
Disabled drivers and invalid parking permit holders claim there are not enough parking spaces for them in Limerick city centre and have called on the local authority to make more available as a matter of urgency.
However, with 35 disabled car parking spaces provided on 19 streets in the city centre, the city council maintain that the allocation of parking spaces for disabled drivers is in line with directives governing the provision of spaces.
City council traffic management engineer Rory McDermott, said the “core business district currently has a ratio of one disabled parking bay to every 25 street spaces.”
But disabled drivers and drivers of disabled persons say that this is not enough.
One driver of a person with mobility difficulties and a holder of a special parking permit says she can never find a space in the city centre when she needs it for her husband.
Josephine Prendergast of Westfields told the Limerick Post that any day she needs on-street parking in the city centre, she ends up parking a long distance from where she wants as there are no disabled spaces free.
“It doesn’t matter what time of the day it is, the spaces are not available. They’re not available because they’re not there. I drive my husband and when he needs to go to town, we have to be able to park near where he wants to go.”
Under European legislation, disabled persons’ parking permits, also known as European parking cards or disabled parking badges, are available to people living in Ireland with certain disabilities and those who are registered blind, whether they are drivers or passengers.
The parking card, issued for a period of two years, can be used by a disabled person in any vehicle in which they are travelling. This means that a disabled person who is being driven at different times by different people can display the parking card in the appropriate vehicle.
“Surely there has to be provision made for more spaces and the council need to look at it. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of spaces in the city and we have only a handful set aside for people with mobility difficulties.”
However, Mr McDermott said that of the 930 on-street parking spaces in the city, 35 of them are set aside for disabled drivers or passengers.
He said that issues surrounding the availability of spaces included permit holders using parking discs outside the specified terms; disabled passengers not being driven in the car taking up the space or the use of lapsed permits.
“There is abuse of the system and Cork city council recently moved to remove the free on-street parking for permit holders in disc parking areas because of the level of irregularities there.
Mr McDermott said the core business area in Limerick lay in a virtual grid from George’s Quay to the Crescent by O’Connell Avenue and from Parnell Street to the Quays.
“We do not have plans for any new spaces unless a new operation opens in the city that draws a high level of demand”.
Tony Maher of the Irish Wheelchair Association said that they would like to see more spaces available generally.
“Obviously we would like to see more spaces available but we also want to make sure that the environment of these designated parking bays are suitable for people who need them. There is no point in having a space available if the kerbing is too high and somebody with a wheelchair can’t access it.”
He added that “the number of disabled access parking bays associated with Limerick, given the number of spaces available in the city, seems quite low”.
The 1994 Road Traffic Act provides for a fine of €80 for parking in a disabled parking bay without a valid permit.
Elsewhere
Galway City Council has over 120 specified parking bays available for drivers or drivers of passengers with disabilities.
There are 98 spaces available for cars displaying a disability disc in Cork while Waterford city with 34 has only one parking space for disabled drivers less than Limerick.
