Closing Dungarvan’s Quay to Traffic Is Pure Madness

Last August Waterford City and County Council closed off part of the Quay in Dungarvan to traffic during the month of August from Friday afternoons to Monday Morning’s and a Tuesday morning should the Monday happen to be a Bank Holiday.

Waterford City and County Council have announced that they are closing the quay again this year, again from a Friday Evening till Monday Morning or on a Tuesday Morning on the weekend of the August Bank Holiday, but this year to extend the closing off period to the months of July and August.

The notice that this was happening appeared in the local papers in Dungarvan recently. I am sure it also appears on the Council’s website but I could not find it there where I looked, or at least I could not find it as easily as a person would hope to find such a notice.

As a disabled person, having seen the notice in the Dungarvan Papers, I emailed the Council to object to the closing off of the quay, and I am here appealing to the newly elected 32 members of Waterford City and Council to support me in my appeal and to make sure that the closing off of the quay in Dungarvan or any other area of the town to traffic does not happen.

Closing off the quay to traffic, as small as the area is to most will not mean anything, but if you are disabled and use the disabled parking bays in the town if the closure goes ahead it will mean that the town’s limited number of parking spaces, which as it is are often taken by able bodied people fraudulently using disabled parking badges are cut by two.

In my appeal to Waterford City and County Council to keep the quay open 24 hours a day to through traffic I pointed out that when it comes to my disabilities, I am one of the lucky ones, if I wanted to visit the library or one of the bars or places where you can consume food inside the barriers I am able to walk, but not disabled people are not as lucky as me and if they had to walk from the disabled parking bay close to the entrance to Garvey’s Supervalu Car Park on the quay or from the disabled bay on Lower Main Street that walk could well be considered a very long one.

I am wondering if Waterford City and County Council goes ahead with their ludicrous idea of closing off the quay again this year are they interested in disabled people visiting the town. Are they only interested in able bodied people who come to Dungarvan to Walk, Run or Cycle on the very successful Greenway which starts close to the quay. Closing off the quay to disabled people and the closing off of two disabled parking bays surly is giving the two fingers sign to the disabled people who live and visit the town of Dungarvan.

I can understand why increased numbers visiting the quay area of Dungarvan that the Council might want to make it safer for them by closing off the quay to traffic.

If the Council wanted to be seen to make the area somewhat safer at weekends there is other options available to it.

Anybody that visits the quay area particularly at the weekends can see that there is a problem in the area. But the problems are not caused by people parking in the two disabled parking bays along the quay which are inside the area that the council wants to close off.

The biggest problem when it comes to vehicles in this area is the parking of cars along the Waterfront, an area that there are double yellow lines painted on the ground.

   If the Council want to make the area safer why not hire a clamping company and clamp cars that park along the waterside part of the quay. Just think of the amount of cars you see parked on this side of the quay each weekend and then think of the money that could be generated to removing a clamp on illegally parked cars.

The Council could take on extra Traffic Wardens for the summer months and roster them to work longer into the evening, making regular walks along the quay well into the evening and issuing illegally parked cars with a fine. Again, another way that Waterford City and County Council would generate money and maybe even pay for these extra temporary jobs.

The Council could even go ahead with its proposal to close off the quay to through traffic but not put up barriers as they did last year and I am sure are planning this year. This would allow people with a valid blue badge to park along the quay and those without a badge would not be permitted to park in the area, and if they were they could be issued with a fine by a Traffic Warden or member of the Gardai, or even clamped if the Council were to go down that road.

I am appealing on behalf of the many disabled people who live in and visit Dungarvan that Waterford City and County Councillors and the 32 newly elected of the body show a compassionate side to them and to announce that they will NOT close off the quay to traffic each weekend in July and August and going forward, or at least if they want to close it off to leave it barrier free and to allow those with valid blue badges to park in the area.

I know that the management and the Councillors will possibly put forward an argument that the closing off of parts of towns and villages of a similar size to Dungarvan and centres that are bigger is something that happens all around Europe.

But why should Dungarvan and other areas of Waterford City and County be like other areas. Why can’t Dungarvan and all parts of Waterford City and County be seen as a place not in Europe but all over the World be seen as a place where disabled people are welcomed, where they can come and go at their ease. Is Dungarvan really a place where the Céad Míle Fáilte is well and truly alive, or does that Céad Míle Fáilte only extend to those that can make most use of the likes of the Greenway or the other tourist attractions around the City and County that you really have to be an able bodied person to get the full advantages off.

Ladies and Gentlemen of Waterford City and County Council and the 32 newly elected members of the Council, please, please, please show you have a compassionate side. Please make Dungarvan a place where the Céad Míle Fáilte is well and truly something that just to the majority but to all. Disabled parking bays in Dungarvan are hard enough to find in Dungarvan as it is without reducing the numbers. Two might be a small number but when you are talking about what is a small number of disabled bays in the town then two is a big number.

Will Dungarvan’s Quay and its two disabled parking bays remain open 24/7, I wont hold my breath but we can hope.