PUBLIC representatives in Dunmanway have requested that Council-owned land, near Castle Street, be used to provide residents with a safe place to park.

Independent Cllr Declan Hurley tabled a motion at a meeting of the West Cork Municipal District following representations from residents resorting to parking on the widened footpaths to prevent their vehicles being damaged from passing traffic.

‘We have all been contacted by residents whose cars are being damaged on a weekly basis,’ said Cllr Hurley, who said some have had to pay garage bills of between €500 and €1,000.

The widening of the footpaths has, he claimed, created a bottleneck on the roadway and heavy goods vehicles, in particular, find it difficult to negotiate.

‘The residents are in a no-win situation,’ he said. ‘And if there was an emergency, the fire brigade couldn’t get up there.’

Cllr Deirdre Kelly (FF) who previously tabled a similar motion, said funding needs to be found to make the Council-owned site a car park.

‘The same people are contacting me,’ she said. ‘People have lost mirrors and have other damage done to their cars. The solution to the problem is to convert the adjacent field.’

Cllr Joe Carroll (FF) said he too was fielding calls from angry residents ‘who come out of a morning and find the mirrors hanging off their cars’.

Jacqueline Mansfield, the West Cork municipal district officer, said it is illegal to park on footpaths and suggested that the traffic warden be ‘more prevalent’.

Cllr Carroll said sending the traffic warden there was not the solution they were looking for, and Cllr Kelly reiterated the problem that needs to be addressed saying: ‘If they go on the street there is no room for a vehicle to go up and down the road. That’s the issue. We need to take the parked cars off the street and allow them to park in the adjoining field.’