Irritation that people were parking on the path in front of her driveway led one Dublin resident to decide to rent out the space to commuters.
“We don’t own a car and people park in front of our house all the time and it was getting difficult to get bikes in and out because we were so blocked in,” she says.
“It was just annoying me and I was grumbling one day in work and my manager said ‘you know you can actually rent out your parking spot’ because we live right near Broombridge station. He said it would be a way to keep the space full, so people know not to park over the driveway entrance and you could earn a bit of money.”
At first she advertised the space on a work notice board, but there were no takers, before posting it on Parkpnp an online platform that facilitates people to rent out their parking spaces. She pitched the price at €13 a day or €65 per week.
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“I looked at what other people locally were asking on the site and decided to go a bit lower because I didn’t really care how much I got for it, I just wanted to get it used.”
It hasn’t turned out to be much of a money-spinner in any case she says.
“We’ve had it up about a year and we’ve had just two people, one lady going into town on a Friday night and she wanted to park overnight and the other one was just for a day. I thought it might be a bit more popular because of the location so near the Luas, which we use all the time ourselves, but just the two, and that’s been it.”
Dublin City Council has complained that people living near Luas stations are paving over their front gardens with tarmac and concrete to rent the spaces for commuter parking. The practice causes pollution and flooding the council said, as the rain, which would have soaked into grass runs directly into the drainage system causing overflows.
[ Parking pressures leading to the loss of front gardens in Dublin, council saysOpens in new window ]
The council is urging people who are determined to create extra parking to use permeable substances such as gravel or brick paving. Where concrete or tarmac has already been laid, residents could help by removing a strip and replacing it with gravel.
The resident who did not wish to be named said her garden had already been paved over when she bought the house, but the previous owner did use brick paving. She said she will keep the space listed for rent to see if the popularity of driveway rentals increases.
“To be honest I hardly ever think about it, so I will keep it listed for the moment. There does seem to be increasing pressure for parking, and people do just park everywhere and anywhere where we live – up on the path, in front of the driveway – so maybe it will change and people will have to park in proper spaces or not at all.”
Parking on footpaths in Dublin, while a common practice, is illegal.
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