Crumlin locals asked to provide parking to families of sick children

A new scheme aimed at providing more parking spaces for the families of children attending Our Lady's Children's Hospital in Crumlin, Dublin, is calling on homeowners and businesses in the area to donate their parking spot.

Parking website Parkpnp is working in collaboration with the Children's Medical and Research Foundation (CMRF) Crumlin to run a pilot scheme to allow people living in the local area to donate a spare parking space to families of patients in the hospital through an online app.

The scheme hopes to not only benefit families visiting loved ones but also to alleviate traffic in the area by reducing the number of cars circling the hospital in search of parking spaces.

More than 120,000 children attend the hospital every year, and parking spaces available for families are limited.

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Added stress

Lisa-Nicole Dunne, chief executive officer of CMRF, said the scheme could relieve some families of the added stress of finding parking when visiting the hospital.

“I think you only have to look at Crumlin to see that they are doing an incredible job,” said Ms Dunne in a promotional video for the pilot scheme. “But there are 120,000 plus children coming to Crumlin for help and support every year and there is a limited number of parking spaces.

“We believe this Parkpnp partnership is a nice way to be able to make a real difference for some of the most chronically ill children and their families. And I think if there are people in the local community who think, ‘You know what, I do have a space there, and I could really put that to good use’, they should definitely head over to Parkpnp and get involved.”

The Parkpnp company, which was founded in Ireland in 2015, writes on its website that it aims to "revolutionise the way people park" and make parking easier for drivers while also decreasing congestion in city centres and lowering carbon emissions.

Residents, homeowners and local business near the Crumlin hospital can sign up to the pilot parking programme through the Parkpnp website, parkpnp.com.