A Ballybofey businessman is calling for more leniency to be shown to shoppers parking on the town’s main street.
Shane McConnell, of McConnell Meats, took to social media to vent his frustration at the current situation there.
“Ok Ballybofey and Stranorlar, I think it’s time we had a conversation about parking in the Twin Towns,” he said.
The popular second generation butcher claimed shoppers who park on the street in Ballybofey and Stranorlar are supposed to be given a grace period of ten minutes free parking in order to go about their business. However, he said, motorists are being penalised immediately with parking fines.
Shane McConnell with his father, John, outside the family business. Pic: McConnell Meats.
Mr McConnell said that, for years, he has been asking local councillors about getting 30 minutes free parking, as is the case in Letterkenny.
However, he said, he was getting “absolutely nowhere” and the latest incident was the ‘final straw.’
“A customer pulled in outside our shop to pop in for five minutes, max,” he explained.
“The tyre of his car was about a foot over the yellow line. A traffic warden sprinted across the road and was at his window in 20 seconds. Before our customer could get his seatbelt off he was told to move. The warden demanded he leave, even though he said he would only be a few minutes and would be 10ft away from his car.”
Mr McConnell claimed that, ‘within a minute’, the warden was issuing the customer with a parking fine.
“Our customer drove off and we did not see him again today,” he said.
As a small business, Mr McConnell said they were paying tens of thousands of euro annually in taxes, electricity, rates and insurance.
“But, we can not even have five minutes grace for parking in Ballybofey. There is no grace period for parking in our town. This (latest incident) is the straw that broke the camel’s back. I propose that we should be given 30 minutes free parking in the Twin Towns. If the businesses and the people of the town are behind my proposal please like, share, comment and tag anyone you think that could help get the conversation started. Let’s do this.”
We have asked Donegal County Council for a comment on the matter.
Tags: