Paid parking in Athy should be suspended during Christmas

FOR me, Christmas is the season that marks the winding down of my working year. I look forward to the chance to rest and recuperate and catch up on those books which have eluded me during the year because of work and social commitments.

Coupled with this quiet time is the chance to enjoy those long-established Christmas traditions. As a child, that was the opportunity to stand outside Duthie’s Jewellers Shop at No. 30 Leinster Street and gaze in wonder at the nodding Santa placed on the top shelf of the window display by Albert Duthie. And while that wonder did not outlive my teenage years, the nodding Santa was still a harbinger of the Christmas festivities and the school holidays to look forward to in eager anticipation.

Our local authorities, be it the former Athy Town Council and Kildare County Council, have always been supportive of Christmas traditions such as the installation and funding of the Christmas lights all through the town which adds immeasurably to the season of good will.

I am not quite sure how far back the council’s endeavours in this regard go but certainly in Christmas 1962, the then Athy Urban District Council greed to provide an illuminated tree in Emily Square and contribute £120 (less the costs of the tree) towards the costs of the street illuminations which were provided by the Athy Illuminations Committee. Because of the current works in Emily Square, the Christmas tree has now been relocated to the back square near the Courthouse but still provides a lovely backdrop to the town during this festive season.

I was more than disappointed to learn recently that another imbedded Christmas tradition had been dispensed with by Kildare County Council. During my time on Athy Town Council, I like many others was resistant to the idea of pay parking being introduced into the town. While county council officials always dressed it up as a “traffic management measure”, I and many of my councillor colleagues were satisfied that it was a “revenue generating exercise”. Notwithstanding that, pay parking was introduced more than twenty years ago and I suspect that its benefits for traffic management are far more outweighed by its revenue gathering benefits for the county council!

One by-product of this regime was that for the four weeks around the Christmas period, pay parking was suspended in the town. This was an inducement to those who might do their shopping in towns such as Portlaoise, Naas, Newbridge and Carlow to stay in their hometown and contribute to local businesses at a very important time for local commerce.

I was surprised and disappointed to understand that without any official announcement pay parking has not been suspended for the Christmas period. I understand that this was greeted very negatively by people in the town who voiced their dissent and disappointment to public representatives.

I further understand that a limited exemption from pay parking in the afternoons between 2pm and 6pm in public car parks (only) has now been introduced belatedly but that is not good enough.

Many people have been caught out by this limited exemption by being ticketed while parked on the street (and not in car parks), though why this distinction is necessary is unclear to me. Between the commercial rates paid by businesses in the town and the parking fees paid by the inhabitants of the town, there was no reason why a townwide suspension of paid parking should not be introduced over the four weeks of the festive period.

It beholds our public representatives using their reserved function to ensure that this does not happen again in 2025. The town businesses need our support and any number of initiatives by Kildare County Council will not support those businesses if something as simple as pay parking cannot be suspended for a brief period.

The encouragement of commercial development in the town requires a holistic approach and this will be compromised by a narrow-minded approach to prioritise revenue generation over town development. Let’s hope that a more forward-thinking approach to this issue is applied in December 2025.

As many readers will know, I have been experiencing significant health challenges over the last six months which has unfortunately necessitated hospital visits and sometimes stays. I am hugely appreciative of the many cards, letters, emails and texts which I have received from people both far and wide enquiring after my welfare and I would like to thank people for those expressions of support, and I wish all of my readers a happy and peaceful Christmas.