O’Shea calls For Further Improvements To Mallow Parking Service

Mallow based Fine Gael councillor Tony O’Shea has welcomed recent changes to parking arrangements in Mallow, while calling for more improvements to take place. Cllr. O’Shea, who is a newly-elected member for the Mallow Electoral Area has also called on Cork Co. Council to take back overall responsibility of managing the town’s car parking system. Currently, a parking management contractor is employed to manage parking services in Mallow on behalf of the council. These services include provision of wardens, web payment system, customer call centre, all fines, administration process from reminder letters to legal process for court, pay parking machine collections, and financial and operational management. At a recent meeting of Kanturk/Mallow Municipal District, Cllr. O’Shea and his colleague Cllr. Liam Madden called for a simplification of parking laws in Mallow and for the town’s parking system to be managed under the auspices of Cork County Council, rather than an external contractor.
Speaking after the meeting, Cllr. O’Shea said: “The changes that have been made to the parking arrangements in Mallow are very welcome. We now have free parking from 1pm on Fridays, as well as free parking on Saturdays and Sundays. There has also been updated signage installed around the town. But we still need to make further changes for the better.
“We must ensure that tickets are transferable within the town. As an example, people who buy a ticket in Shortcastle should be able to use the same ticket on O’Brien Street within the timeframe on the ticket. This would be a logical and very welcome change.
“We must also simplify the car parks in the town. There should only be three-hour car parks and all-day car parks; the two-hour car parks should be changed to three-hour. I also encouraged the council to consider bringing the operation of the parking system in Mallow back under the auspices of Cork County Council,” Cllr. O’Shea said.
Cork County Council said that the current contract with the parking management contractor is due for renewal in January 2020 and that it “reviews arrangements on a regular basis to ensure that an effective and efficient parking management system is maintained at all times”. The Council added that it is currently conducting a cost benefit analysis to determine the most appropriate means of managing parking services in Mallow into the future.