More parking spaces needed to relieve pressure in estates

Cavan County Council is being asked to develop more parking spaces in local authority owned estates to alleviate traffic congestion.

Cllr Noel Connell (SF) made the request at the November meeting of the local authority. He pointed to the “difficulties with vacancies during peak hours”. These, he said, create “bottlenecks” and residents often feel “trapped” in their houses, especially in the event of an emergency when emergency services need access.

“It’s also having a negative impact on the community and on people’s quality of life,” Cllr Connell continued.

Fine Gael’s Trevor Smith agreed “it’s definitely a problem”.

“It’s not just one car outside a house now, it’s three or four. There was a case in Kilnaleck where the emergency services couldn’t get into an estate because of the parking situation, so I definitely support this motion.”

Sinn Fein’s Stiofán Conaty said that the situation highlighted the “importance” of getting out there and solving the housing crisis.

“It’s affecting every facet of society,” he said. “There’s grown adults - hard working people - being forced to live in the box room of their parents’ house. There’s four or five adults to a house with a car per person and that won’t improve if people can’t get a home.”

Fianna Fáil’s Cllr Aine Smith, said the problem extends beyond council-owned estates ad evident in other estates, especially around Cavan Town. “One in particular that I have brought up at the municipal district meeting many times is Loreto Wood,” she continued.

She said there are “terrible” difficulties with parking there at drop-off and pick-up times from Loreto College.

“People are parking along the road the whole way up to the cross and there are some parents who are coming in, and parking in front of houses. As a result, people can’t get out of their houses. I understand that everyone is under pressure but I think that if we, as a county council, could write to the school and see if they could manage their traffic a little bit better it might improve things.

“This is the one route from the bypass and from town that’s going to the hospital and, if we need an ambulance to go through, it’s completely chaotic. I appreciate it’s particularly bad at certain times in the day - the morning and the afternoon - but at those times if an ambulance is trying to get through or someone is trying to get out of their house in Loreto Wood, it’s absolutely ridiculous when you see the parking there,” said Cllr Smith.

Her party colleague, Cllr Clifford Kelly added: “This is becoming a very, very serious issue. There are people in estates who now want to take the walls in front of their house out so they can provide parking.

“They can’t turn their cars when they are trying to get out to work because of vehicles parked up on both sides of the road. In some cases there are no places for people to park their cars and it really is becoming chaotic. And, I see all this in private housing estates as well.”

Independent Cllr Brendan Fay said the motion should apply to all estates, not just council-owned ones. “I know of one road in Belturbet at the Fairgreen, which has now become impassable because of the fact that there are two or three cars outside houses now,” he said.

Cllr Carmel Brady (FG) then pointed to an example where such issues were eased when residents and councillors worked together. “We had a big issue in a housing estate in Cootehill; people were coming in to drop children off and all of that,” she said. “We actually sat down with the residents’ association and talked it through. We were able to come up with some solutions including parking better and availing of space that wasn’t being used,” she revealed.

“Residents’ associations have a role to play in this as well because it is a health and safety issue where there are children out playing in these estates. We worked out a very good plan with our residents’ association in Cootehill - the council can’t be expected to deal with every estate in the county,” added Cllr Brady.

Joining the debate, Cllr Patricia Walsh (FF) added: “The older estates certainly weren’t built with parking as a priority; when some of them were built, people didn’t have one car outside their house, never mind two or three cars.

“I think that going forward when it comes to the provision of housing there will need to be adequate parking spaces provided for. We all know that people want to park outside their own door.”

She concluded: “I know myself of cases where ambulances couldn’t get into an estate in an emergency situation because the place was choc-a-block with cars and there could be serious consequences to all of this.”