Godfrey's Gospel: Free parking for the public sector must go

I GOT A CALL last week from a reader of this column (yes, believe it or not, some people do correspond with me to either complain or agree with my views on certain topics) to talk about the road works at St Mary’s Cemetery.

My initial thoughts were this will be some frustrated cyclist taking exception to my commenting on the fact that I believe the provision of an elaborate cycle lane at the cemetery was unnecessary.

Wrong. It was to agree with me and question why all this money was being ‘wasted’ when there are far more urgent projects around the town in need of financial support.

We got talking about those and then the subject of car parking came up, and again we were in agreement of our disagreement with ‘private’ car parks becoming the norm.

I say private when, in fact, the signage clearly shows these car parks are strictly ‘staff only’. That got me thinking about where this notion first came about, that staff anywhere believe they have a right to a private car park, when the customers they look after have to scurry about looking for a parking space before entering that particular building.

Once upon a time, The Nationalist had a printing works at the rear of its then-office on Tullow Street. The location came with ample space, which allowed for those of us who had a car to park there.

But all good things come to an end and eventually that land was sold for development – part of it now includes the multi-storey car park at Carlow Shopping Centre.

One member of staff, sadly now deceased, asked at the time where were we to park our cars and was politely told by management to park on the street, the same as everyone else. We had been lucky to enjoy the car park while it was there, but that did not give us an automatic right to presume we should always have that right.

At the time, I didn’t give much consideration to the subject. I parked on the street outside the office when lucky to find a spot, and elsewhere around the town if I couldn’t. That’s the way it was.

But in recent years I have noticed a trend, especially in schools – not picking on any in particular – and ‘public’ buildings, again not picking on any in particular, where there is no debate on the matter. Car-parking facilities at these buildings are for staff only and there are barriers preventing free access to prove it.

However, this practice is not confined to Carlow – the same seems to be the general understanding all over the country. I’d love to know who came up with this notion, or if it is even legal. Another question to ask those in charge of the purse strings is: who paid for the electric barriers, groundworks, tarmac and road markings in these ‘private’ car parks?

Another interesting question: are the employees of these businesses, schools or whatever you want to call them, paying benefit-in-kind for such a concession?

Granted, they are going to their place of work, but I can name many a business in town where people drive to work and have to either pay for ‘all-day parking’ or leave their on the outskirts of town, outside the reach of traffic wardens, and walk the rest of the way to work.

I can remember householders in some residential areas close to the town centre complaining in the past of excessive on-street parking, simply because those working in the town centre couldn’t afford to feed the parking meters every couple of hours to avoid getting a parking ticket, so they had no option but to find a quiet, residential area to park and walk the rest of the way to work.

Isn’t it also rude of some people to think they have a right to enjoy private parking, especially when taxpayers are funding the upkeep of these buildings, the very existence of these private parking facilities and the wages of those working at these various establishments?

In some cases it was the softly-softly approach at first, where barriers went up as you approached or exited these car parks, but all of that is in the past. If you can’t swipe or don’t know the entry code, the barrier won’t move. And if you question anyone, if you are lucky to find someone, you will be quickly told ‘this is private’ – in other words, how dare you.

What really annoys me is having to pay for parking at our hospitals. I know we don’t have one in Carlow, but whenever I have gone to St Luke’s in Kilkenny or some of the Dublin hospitals, it pains me when I see the rates they charge.

That might be okay for someone who only frequents a hospital every now and then, but think of the cost someone will incur if they are visiting a relative on a daily basis. It won’t take long before that small hourly rate converts into a sizeable chunk of a person’s old-age pension.