Councils uturn on tour bus parking spaces in town centre
Westmeath County Council is to provide space for four tour buses to park along a busy road in the centre of Athlone this summer – despite having previously indicated that the location was not suitable for bus parking.
There is currently one bus parking bay on the Custume Barracks side of Grace Road (also known as Accommodation Road), but council official Pat Keating recently said an additional three bus parking spaces would be provided there as previous attempts to accommodate buses alongside Athlone Castle and in the O’Connell St carpark had proved “unworkable”.
Mr Keating said the usage of the new bus bays along Grace Road would be monitored over the course of the summer and could then be reviewed in the autumn.
Cllr Kevin 'Boxer’ Moran pointed out that when the matter was previously discussed by Athlone Town Council the members were told that this road wasn’t suitable for bus bays.
“That’s why they were moved around to other areas of the town, but now we’re back where we started,” said 'Boxer’.
Cllr Michael O’Brien, while noting that a shortage of bus parking spaces in Athlone was a deterrent for tour bus providers, said it was “a bit disappointing” that the council had to “go back to square one” by providing the spaces at this location.
“To me, it’s the right location,” said Cllr Paul Hogan, pointing out Grace Road’s proximity to the Castle, Luan Gallery, Marina and planned cycleway bridge across the Shannon.
Athlone Mayor Cllr Frankie Keena welcomed the new bus parking bays, saying Athlone had become “a very strong tourist destination”. However, he asked if there would be enough space for two vehicles to safely pass each other on Grace Road while buses were parked there.
Council Director of Services Barry Kehoe said two vehicles “would be able to pass slowly” alongside the buses “and we may have to adjust the road markings to reflect that.”
He acknowledged that there could be a difficulty when heavy goods vehicles meet each other on this road while buses are parked there.
“We will monitor it over the summer and see how it works. If it works satisfactorily, if bus companies are happy, and if it causes no major traffic issues, then we would propose to leave (the spaces) in place (for the long term),” said Mr Kehoe.
He also said there may be a time limit placed on how long a bus is allowed to remain in these parking bays, and added that bus parking bays were also in place in the Golden Island area of town.
Cllr Aengus O’Rourke said traffic which is coming from Pearse Street and turning left onto Grace Road, at the junction outside the Church, comes upon the pedestrian crossing at the Luan Gallery very quickly. He felt this posed an accident risk and asked for improved lighting and other safety measures to be considered there.
Mr Kehoe said the council would examine the lighting and would also seek to “tighten the curve” so that motorists turning left onto Grace Road would be “forced out to more of a right angle.”
Cllr O’Rourke also asked if the Defence Forces had been approached to see if they might be willing to facilitate tour bus parking in the grounds of Custume Barracks.
There would be no harm in putting this question to the Department of Defence, Mr Kehoe replied, but he suspected the answer would be no, as the Department tends to be “hugely protective of its military premises, and probably rightly so.”