KILDARE: Council owned car parks will be free in Naas for December

The public car parks owned by Kildare County Council in Naas will be free to use in December.

Councillors have agreed to again allow free parking in the KCC owned facilities from December 1 to December 31 as a gesture of goodwill towards shoppers and retailers in the town.

The car parks are located at Abbey Street, Fairgreen and Hederman’s, off Friary Road.

However not all the councillors were in agreement with the Green Party’s Bob Quinn questioning whether the concession  had the “desired effect” and he also pointed to the promotion of car use against a background of climate change.

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Cllr Quinn also said no other town or village suspends the charges in the car parks.

Instead he said there is a “good spread of retail in Naas” and “we need to talk this up.”

Naas Mayor Bill Clear noted that since last year one car park - Boyle’s at Friary Road, is no longer operated by KCC and so some people will have to do more walking.

“We need footfall in the town, we want to support the traders,” Cllr Anne Breen told a Naas Municipal District meeting.

Parking elsewhere on the streets will not, however, be free in the run up to Christmas.