Shopping centre parking fee proposed

CONSUMERS COULD end up paying for parking in out-of-town shopping centres as a possible revenue generator for local authorities, Minister for the Environment John Gormley has said.

The Minister said that he was in no doubt that out-of-town shopping centres were having a detrimental impact on town centres and that free car parking was a “huge attraction”.

He told an Oireachtas committee that such centres are often built on the borders between town and county local authorities and get revenue through rates and development levies, but town and city centres suffer as a result.

Several politicians, who are members of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment, raised the issue of out-of-town shopping centres, which invariably have free parking.

Ned O’Keeffe TD said such places had “destroyed” the centre of Youghal in his Cork constituency and also Clonmel in Co Tipperary.

Mr O’Keeffe said that there was no level playing field for town centre businesses that pay the same rates as out-of-town shopping centre businesses but have to contend with paid parking which drives customers away.

The Department of the Environment is looking at new retail planning guidelines which will be published later this year.

Mr Gormley said that he would now examine the issue of free parking in out-of-town shopping centres and said it could be a “good revenue raiser as well” for local authorities.

The Minister told the committee that the Government could not stop cross-Border shopping.

“It is out of our control. They [shoppers] are getting a much better deal with the sterling. We are in the sterling zone. What can we do about that? In the short term, very little.”

He confessed that he had no dealings with his Northern Ireland equivalent Sammy Wilson who he said did not appear to be interested in cross-Border co-operation.

Fine Gael TD Damien English said the Government could bring down rates and cut the nine to 10-month delay at An Bord Pleanála for planning developments to help small businesses. The Minister said he was looking to bring in local authority planners into An Bord Pleanála “as soon as possible” to clear the 2,500 cases still pending at the board, as local authorities are not as busy as they were in previous years.

The Minister said that the new retail developments should be “plan-led and not developer-led” and that the emphasis would be on “sustainable development through plan policy-setting”.