Mullingar 'owed' free parking days - Wallace

The case for ensuring motorists don’t lose out on extra free parking days agreed at Christmas was made by Cllr Emily Wallace at the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad’s April meeting.

Cllr Wallace formally sought an update on the leftover Christmas parking days, reminding the executive that agreed extra free parking days were to be carried forward to Q1 of 2023.

“It had been agreed to have these be brought forward to coincide with a shop local promotion/Mullingar Chamber initiative,” Cllr Wallace reminded the executive.

The official written reply to her request stated that the district is engaging with the Chamber of Commerce on possible dates, which will coincide with local promotional events arranged by the chamber.

The Fine Gael woman explained that her concern was that days meant to have been carried over the year before had been lost, and she did not want the same thing happening with the days carried over for this year.

“The whole idea of moving the days forward was to try and encourage people to come in to Mullingar in the quiet first quarter of the year,” Cllr Wallace told the meeting.

However, she continued, it is now April: “We're heading into the summer season,” she said, adding that the idea had been to give a boost by encouraging shoppers in when business was slower.

It was, she continued, about helping support local taxpayers and local ratepayers.

“So what is the proposal?” she asked the executive.

Director of services David Jones replied that the details have yet to be finalised, but on foot of the discussions with the Chamber of Commerce what is looking likely is a day in May and another date in November.