Sir - If 6,100 new cars are sold each week (The Irish Times, September 27th), that's 317,200 a year. As each car takes up 98 sq. ft. of space (excluding clearance room) then 31.1 million sq. ft. of parking space is required. In the private sector apartment builders sell car parking spaces at £18,000. If all motorists were to buy their car parking space at current market value, that would be £5.7 billion worth of real estate. This excludes the fact that many cars require two parking spaces - at home and work (very few motorists have people parking in their driveway while they are at work).
Unfortunately many motorists (including myself) do not buy their parking spaces either at home or work, choosing to park on public land alongside the roadside, footpaths, grass verges etc. At the current level of car sales this practice is now unsustainable. Housing estates, which were once popular play areas for children have become giant linear car parks. Is it now about time for the civic authorities, before issuing a car tax certificate, to require the applicant to prove that he or she has somewhere to safely park both at home and at work? - Yours, etc.,
John Devlin, Erne Terrace, Baile Atha Cliath.