Mullingar Chamber of Commerce has called for parking charge increases of 100 to 150 per cent to be scrapped pending the adoption of a management plan for the town.
The controversial new charges aim to raise the cost of residents' parking permits from £5 to £50 per year, while permits for those who work and park in the town centre are to rise from £10 to £150 per year, before being phased out completely in two years' time.
The tariffs are to be introduced to increase car-parking prices paid on-street and in council-controlled car-parks. The increases, which the council says are aimed at tackling chronic traffic congestion in the town, have been criticised by businesses as a deterrent on car-usage while providing no alternative.
Stressing that it supports measures to deal with "the single greatest challenge facing the town", the local chamber of commerce has called for the proposed increases to be set aside pending a "strategic management and development plan for the town".
According to Ms Aine O'Meara, chief executive of the chamber, "If the employees' permit charge for town centre parking is to be increased substantially, then employees must have alternative options in terms of adequate out-of-town parking and/or a local bus service."
Increasing the employees' permit charge to a point where it is a deterrent is unfair if no other reasonable way of getting into the town is provided, according to the chamber.
On the issue of traffic management, the chamber feels that the council has not sufficiently thought out its management scheme. "There must be definitive proposals with regard to additional car-parking spaces, pedestrianisation, cycle lanes, a local bus service etc., and only when all of these elements are being progressed can we start to examine an overhaul of the fee structure for all elements of carparking", said Ms O'Meara.
Mullingar chamber has recently unveiled its own plans for a town centre development plan which it hopes will be adopted by all relevant development agencies and interested groups. The plan outlines specific proposals to address carparking and it will be discussed at a meeting with members of the local authority in the near future, said Ms O'Meara.