Commuters angry over untenable Kinnegad parking situation

Moves to introduce two-hour parking on Main Street, Kinnegad will leave local commuters in an untenable position, a local resident has claimed this week.Commuters who travel to work, study or even shop in Dublin on weekdays are angry at being singled out as "sleepers", and say parking space should be set aside for them so they can get the bus to the capital, Coralstown resident Kathy Clarke told the Westmeath Examiner.Recently, Westmeath County Council met with Kinnegad traders to hammer out a deal for two-hour restricted parking on the town's main thoroughfare.The Council had originally planned to introduce full ticketed parking in Kinnegad, prompting anger among business owners in the town. They argued that paid parking would drive business away from them, while not solving the "sleeper" issue.But Kathy said that as a commuter, she feels that commuters who live in Kinnegad will be unfairly punished by the proposed revised parking bye-laws."We should have been invited to the recent discussions [between the Council and traders] to come up with a more joined-up approach to parking in Kinnegad," she said."There has been a lot of emphasis on what the traders want, and while I can see it from their point of view, safe, secure parking is needed for the commuters."Kathy recalled that while parking her car in Kinnegad to travel to Dublin for her daily commute, in recent months she had been "met with a lot of hostility"."Sometimes I'd have people coming up to me and aggressively knocking on my window," she said."It's very hard to think that you'd want to spend money in local shops at evenings and weekends, when you're getting this kind of approach."Kathy explained that using the train from Mullingar became impossible, due to difficulties getting car parking at the station, and an ongoing problem with car break-ins.Similarly, reopening the station at Killucan wouldn't solve the problem for Kinnegad commuters, Kathy continued. "If you spend time travelling a lot as I do, then your idea is to cut it down as much as possible."The train system is too slow, and there are too many stops between Longford and Dublin. When the train arrives, for some people it's much too far from their place of work."She called on commuters in Kinnegad to state their case to Westmeath County Council before the new bye-laws come into effect.