Croke Park parking ban abandoned

Plans to ban match-goers from parking in an area up to 4km from Croke Park have been abandoned by Dublin City Council after two years of development of the initiative.

The council began drafting bylaws, which would restrict parking during matches to residents only, in 2007 following years of complaint over the chaotic parking of match goers.

Initially the council's traffic department proposed banning non-residents from parking within a 1km radius of the stadium. Councillors whose constituents lived just outside this cordon complained that the parking problem would be displaced to their areas and the zone was extended to 2km.

The bylaws were then put out to public consultation and attracted more than 100 objections from councillors, members of the public and TDs. Some, including former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern were concerned that the restriction would prevent people from attending mass, while traders in the zone were worried the ban would damage business.

However the greatest number of objections were from those living beyond the 2km cordon who feared displacement of parking into their suburbs.

Ultimately the cordon was extended so that in some places its outer limit was almost 4km from the stadium. It was also watered down to allow non-residents to continue to park in pay-and-display spaces.

Any new bylaws must be ratified by the councillors before they can be passed into law. The final draft of the Croke Park bylaws was put to a vote of councillors this week and was rejected by an almost two to one majority.

Councillors who had voted in favour of the bylaws were mostly those whose constituents lived inside the cordon. Fianna Fáil councillor Julia Carmichael, who represents a large number of constituents living just outside the border of the cordon said the bylaws had been "completely irresponsible" and "an unfair proposal for the rest of Dublin city".

Her Fianna Fáil colleague Mary Fitzpatrick who represents residents living near Croke Park had originally proposed the bylaws.

When asked his view, before the vote taken, city manager John Tierney said he understood the residents' plight but was not in favour of the bylaws.

"My preference would be not to have to resort to bylaws such as this."

The bylaws were the first proposed under a 2007 amendment to the Road Traffic Acts which provides that an authority may "in respect of a specified event or events" introduce bylaws to prohibit or restrict parking "in the interests of safety of road users and preventing traffic congestion".