Free Saturday afternoon parking in Kells

Kells Town Council is to introduce free parking in the town on Saturdays between 12 noon and 3pm from mid-May, in a bid to stimulate business. Local traders are also being asked to row in behind the campaign with special offers and promotions to coincide with the council's initiative. At Monday night's meeting of Kells Town Council, a campaign on the lines of 'Lunch and Shop in Kells' was suggested as an incentive for shoppers. The area manager, Kevin Stewart, had told the meeting that, in response to a council questionnaire, businesses in the town had indicated they would prefer free parking on a Saturday. He explained the council had set aside €10,000 in its budget for a free parking initiative and had sent out questionnaires to traders asking their opinions on when they wanted free parking. He said the most popular suggestion was free parking on a Saturday, but to provide all-day free parking on a Saturday would cost in the region of €35,000 to €40,000, which the council couldn't afford. He was suggesting free parking until 12 noon during the summer months. He suggested talking to traders and the Chamber of Commerce to see if they could come up with some sort of initiative to coincide with it. When Cllr Sarah Reilly said that businesses offering lunches wouldn't benefit, he said agreed and suggested they offer free parking between 12 noon and 3pm instead. Both Cllr Bryan Reilly and Brian Curran agreed that traders would prefer free parking from 11 or 12 o'clock. Cllr Conor Ferguson said traders would have to start offering good value - something similar to the 'Fiver Friday' inititive. Cllr Oliver Sweeney said they needed to do something to help the retail trade in the town and that peole found it hard to adjust to paid parking. Cllr Frankie Lynch supported the proposal to provide free parking from noon to 3pm to give restaurants a chance to benefit. Cllr Sean Drew said that if the initiative was to have an impact on trade in the town, local businesses would have to promote it. Cllr Brian Collins said that €10,000 might seem like a lot of money but it was nothing compared to the thousands of euro the council spends on cleaning and picking up litter. He said there would be no need for parking charges if people were more civic-minded.