Westport councillors support proposal for free Christmas parking

COUNCILLORS have voted in favour of Westport having free parking for shoppers this Christmas.

The proposal is that it will apply to the council car parks in the town and that parking will be free up until 2 p.m.

Councillor Brendan Mulroy put forward the idea at a municipal district meeting today, and it was seconded by Councillor John O'Malley. It applies only to the car parks, with on-street arrangements remaining as they are.

Councillor Peter Flynn agreed it was a good idea – anything that got people into town was to be welcomed.

There was a word of caution from Councillor Christy Hyland about the possibility of people parking up and then heading to other towns shopping.

He had no problem with free parking for Christmas but was it encouraging people to leave their cars all day so shoppers couldn't get in, he wondered.

The town already had one hour's free parking, which encouraged customer turnover.

Director of services Catherine McConnell made the point that councillors in Castlebar had allocated money from their GMA funding to meet the loss in income there.

There is nothing free in this world – someone has to pick up the cost.