Galway City Council’s U-turn on residents' parking permits

According to the report, seen by the Galway City Tribune, “more detailed assessment” of resident parking permit applications had “unintentionally” led to confusion among motorists.

The report found that across 22 parking zones in the city, between 2014 and 2019, there were 89 fewer on-street parking permits issued – although it is stated that the number of applications over this period also decreased.

All parking permits, as per the report compiled by the Council’s Director of Services for Transport, Ruth McNally, are processed at the “discretion” of the Council – and a number of applicants normally granted a permit were refused in 2017 and 2018 due to the fact they had off-street parking available.

It is understood that residents have been sent letters from City Hall to seek applications for on-street parking permits – something that has been confirmed by this report.

Ms McNally states in her report: “I have made a decision to reinstate permits to all eligible residents who held a valid permit at January 1, 2017 and whose application for renewal since this date was refused on grounds of having off-street parking availability, and who are not engaging in commercial activity, pending a review of the full parking bylaws and an Executive Order to this effect has been signed and this process is currently underway”.

The report finds that the current parking bylaws that were drawn up in 2009 require “significant updating due to the many changes which have taken place since, namely new commuter all-day parking in peripheral areas”, something it is concluded is causing problems for residents. This is a preview only. To read the rest of this article, see this week's Galway City Tribune. Buy a digital edition of this week's paper here, or download the app for Android or iPhone.