Sir, – News that planners intend to deny or severely restrict the rights of residents to possess cars in future housing developments should be greeted with alarm (“New guidelines may limit households to one parking spot in some developments”, News, August 31st ).
Limiting gratuitous car use has its merits, but trying to do so by prohibiting future property buyers from ever again being able to park a car close to their home, even temporarily, is wrong.
Many individuals require the regular use of a car, regardless of the public transport options available.
Need to carry heavy or bulky equipment around for your job? Need a car. Do kayaking, surfing or mountain biking? Need to get kids to separate football pitches in Greystones and Portmarnock at the same time early on a Sunday morning? Need two cars.
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The individual or family that doesn’t need a car right now is not necessarily one that will never need a car. Children are staying at home to a much later age, and it is common now for households to have three or more cars.
By restricting the provision of parking spaces, planner risk trapping people in homes that may severely restrict quality of life in future for them and their families.
Of course, residents will do their best to work around such restrictions anyway by parking chaotically in nearby streets, on footpaths, and on common areas. Architects talk about “desire lines” – the muddy tracks across grassy areas that show where good planners should have put a footpath, but didn’t. We should not make the same mistake in relation to domestic parking by writing impractical restrictions into law.
Car ownership is not going away. Planners would be better employed ensuring that future parking needs are fulfilled efficiently in new developments, instead of planning for a dream world in which cars won’t be needed at all. – Yours, etc,
JOHN THOMPSON,
Dublin 7.
Sir, – It was interesting to read that households may be be limited to one parking spot in some developments.
Will the State lead the way and remove the current level of parking at various locations, such as Leinster House, for example? Or is it a case of do as we say, not as we do? – Yours, etc,
STEPHEN O’HARA,
Carrowmore,
Sligo.