Cork Corporation's plan to reduce on-street parking in the city centre by more than 330 spaces is likely to have a dramatic impact on both motorists and city-centre businesses. But the corporation insists the move is a positive one.
The plan involves the elimination of some spaces, the change from nose-to-kerb parking to parallel parking in other areas, and the conversion of other spaces to disabled parking, tour-bus spaces and unloading bays.
The planned changes will take place throughout the central business district on Morrison's Island as well as along the quays on both north and south channels, and out along Washington Street. Minor changes are planned for smaller streets on the western side of the city centre.
The most dramatic change - and loss - will take place along Morrison's Quay and Father Matthew Quay, where the switch from nose-to-kerb to parallel parking will cut 110 spaces. Parking in the area will also be reduced from three hours to one. Some 58 places will disappear in a similar switch on Pope's Quay, and a further 53 will be lost on Washington Street West. But Cork Corporation's senior executive engineer for traffic, Mr Dan Looney, insists the changes can only be beneficial for the city, in particular for pedestrians, business people, residents and visitors. He points out the proposals are part of the City Development Plan.
"The 1998 City Development Plan review emphasised the need for a good parking policy which aims to curtail traffic congestion at peak times, protect the environment of the city through reduced air and noise pollution, as well as to enhance the economic and social life of the city centre," he said.
"The development plan proposes the replacement of on-street parking with off-street multi-storey parking and capping the number of spaces in the city centre at 6,500 - all with a view to allowing greater pedestrianisation and the development of environmental amenity schemes.
"With the opening of four new multi-storey car-parks off the island at Sharman and Crawford streets, Carroll's Quay, St Patrick's Quay and Eglington Street with almost 1,250 new spaces, the number of parking spaces in the city centre now stands at 7,875, which is over 1,300 more than the development plan target."
The proposals involve changes in parking times in a number of areas, including Copley Street, Union Quay, Sullivan's Quay, French's Quay and streets between Douglas Street and George's Quay and Sullivan's Quay. Parking in these areas will drop from three to two hours.
Mr Looney points out that the volume of traffic entering the city centre has been reduced since the opening of the Jack Lynch Tunnel, which caters for 30,000 vehicles a day.
It will be reduced further with the opening of the Ballincollig Bypass which will siphon more traffic away from the city centre.
"Our traffic studies show that before the tunnel opened, some 16,000 vehicles a day were entering the city centre and that this was reduced by 22 per cent with the opening of the tunnel, and with the redevelopment of Patrick Street, we estimate that it will be reduced by a further 20 per cent," he said.
"But some 150,000 vehicles enter the city every day and the figure is growing by 4.5 per cent per year."
Mr Looney is enthusiastic about the plans for Morrison's Quay and Father Matthew Quay, where the switch to parallel parking will allow the corporation to put in a riverside walk similar to that across the south channel at Union Quay.
Disabled drivers will also significantly benefit, with spaces increased from seven to 84. The new spaces will be distributed throughout the city centre, with no area more than a few hundred yards from a space.
Residents, too, should benefit, said Mr Looney. People living on the fringes of the city centre in places like Douglas Street and Lower Glanmire Road have had to contend with commuters availing of three-hour parking outside their homes. The change to one-hour parking in these areas will open them up for residents.
Mr Looney is keen to stress the changes are part of an integrated traffic management strategy which will also see Cork Corporation begin to return many one-way streets to a two-way system.
"If you're living down the Lower Glanmire Road and you want to come or go, you have to go out on to Horgan's Quay. So what we would hope to do is introduce two-way traffic there and on Horgan's Quay. This would give easier access to the residential area but it can also act as a curb to further traffic flows."
While pedestrianisation is the favoured option for parts of the city centre, Mr Looney stressed many of the proposals would not involve permanent pedestrianisation but rather closure to non-essential traffic during part of the day, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., as on Maylor Street.
According to Cork Business Association public relations officer James O'Sullivan, the association's long-term policy of introducing more off-street parking is in line with the corporation's plan, but he stressed there needs to be regular consultation with business people in different parts of the city.
"Each area has to be weighed up separately. There's quite a lot of economic activity on McCurtain Street, so plans to reduce parking there would have a very different impact to the plans for Pope's Quay, where there wouldn't be the same concentration of businesses. Proper consultation is the answer."
But Mr Looney insists the corporation is being reasonable and points out it could have reduced on-street spaces last year when the four new multi-storey car-parks opened off the island, adding 1,250 new parking spaces.
"What we should have done when those 1,250 new spaces were coming on stream was to have phased out some of those 337 on-street spaces, because technically, that's what we were supposed to do. But because of the timing of it around Christmas, it wouldn't have been prudent.
"But our policy is not to take parking spaces out just for the sake of it. Our policy is to take them out when there's some practical use to be made of it. We want to give the city centre streets back to pedestrians, to residents, to disabled drivers, to business people who need deliveries - to the public at large."
