Parking Charges to Increase: Your Help Needed

06/03/2026

Tipperary County Council plans to increase car‑parking charges in Tipperary Town under a so‑called "harmonisation" with other towns. This may sound fair, but it is not equitable for our town.

Tipperary is not like Roscrea, Templemore, Cahir, Cashel or Carrick‑on‑Suir, yet we are being banded with them on population alone, with no regard for our very real disadvantages.

• Our town‑centre traders are in direct competition with an edge‑of‑town shopping centre where parking is completely free – a disadvantage no other town in our band faces.

• Thousands of vehicles thunder along the N24 right through our shopping street every day; again, none of the other towns in our band live with this level of through‑traffic in their core.

The Council's own Tipperary Town Centre Health Check – which they helped fund – highlights just how fragile our town centre is:

  1. • 18.6% overall vacancy and 31.2% retail vacancy (the highest retail vacancy rate in the County): 84 empty buildings, 43 of them retail, showing a very stressed town‑centre core.
  2. • 73% of town‑centre users come by car and 62% already pay for parking, while footfall collapses after 5pm.
  3. • 67% of surveyed local businesses explicitly support two‑hour free parking as a vital part of town‑centre recovery. Parking is not "too cheap"; it is a necessary support.

• The Health Check identifies heavy N24/N74 traffic, online leakage and high retail vacancy as the core problems and recommends better active travel, digital strategy and events – not making it more expensive for local people to park and shop.

In short, Tipperary Town is in a more precarious position than many of its peers, is heavily dependent on car‑borne local shoppers, and has clear evidence and a strong business mandate in favour of affordable – or free – short‑stay parking. Increasing parking charges now would defy that evidence, put local jobs and businesses at further risk, and weaken the very town centre we are trying so hard to revive.

It is no accident that Tipperary Town is the only town in the County where the Irish Government has created a dedicated Task Force to revitalise the town – yet these proposals ignore that reality.

Call to action:

SUBMISSIONS MUST REACH THE COUNCIL BY CLOSE OF BUSINESS ON 13 MARCH!

We are asking councillors and officials to stop, look at the hard evidence on Tipperary Town, and reject any "one‑size‑fits‑all" parking increase. Parking policy must reflect our town's unique challenges – free edge‑of‑town parking, N24 traffic, high vacancy and fragile footfall – not just our population on a spreadsheet. Please insist on a fair, tailored parking regime that supports recovery in Tipperary Town instead of undermining it.

If you would like to help, please one of the following 3 methods:

  1. Copy and paste the text below into a letter and post it to: Liam Brett, Director of Services, Tipperary County Council, Civic Offices, Limerick Road, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary. Make sure to include your name and address, or the Council may not count your submission; or 
  2. Copy and paste the text below into an email and send it to: parkingbyelaws@tipperarycoco.ie  Make sure to include your name and address, or the Council may not count your submission
  3. Download the email HERE or from the download link at the bottom of this article and either post it to Liam Brett, Director of Services, Tipperary County Council, Civic Offices, Limerick Road, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary or email it to parkingbyelaws@tipperarycoco.ie

The suggested text of the email or letter (please feel free to amend as you think fit) is here:

Dear Sir / Madam,

I am writing to make a submission on the proposed increase in car‑parking charges in Tipperary Town as part of the County‑wide "harmonisation" process.

I strongly oppose applying the same parking regime to Tipperary Town as to other towns in its band. Treating towns "equally" on population alone does not deliver equity. Tipperary Town faces serious and continuing challenges that are not experienced in the same way by Roscrea, Templemore, Cahir, Cashel or Carrick‑on‑Suir.

In particular:

  • Tipperary Town Centre traders must compete directly with an edge‑of‑town shopping centre where parking is completely free, a disadvantage that other banded towns do not face.
  • Thousands of vehicles travel the N24 and N74 right through the heart of the town centre every day, bringing congestion, noise and air pollution into our main shopping street.

The Council‑supported Tipperary Town Collaborative Town Centre Health Check (CTCHC) highlights just how fragile our town centre already is:

  • Tipperary Town has an 18.6% overall vacancy rate and 31.2% retail vacancy, with 84 empty buildings (43 of them retail), indicating a very stressed town‑centre core.
  • 73% of town‑centre users arrive by car and 62% already pay for parking, while footfall drops sharply after 5pm.
  • 67% of surveyed businesses explicitly supported two‑hour free parking as part of town‑centre recovery; parking is seen as a necessary support, not "too cheap".
  • The CTCHC identifies heavy N24/N74 traffic, online leakage and high retail vacancy as the core problems and recommends better active travel, digital strategy and events, rather than raising the cost of access for local shoppers.
  • On top of this, Tipperary Town is the only town in the County where the Irish Government has established a dedicated Revitalisation Task Force, precisely because of the scale of the challenges the town faces. In this context, increasing parking charges in Tipperary Town Centre would:

  1. Run directly against the evidence in the CTCHC report and the expressed views of local businesses.

  2. Risk further reducing footfall in an already fragile town centre and push more trade to out‑of‑town and online competitors.

  3. Undermine ongoing efforts by the community, traders and the Task Force to revive the historic core of the town.


I therefore respectfully request that Tipperary County Council:

  • Remove Tipperary Town from the current "harmonised" banding based solely on population, and
  • Develop a tailored parking policy for Tipperary Town that reflects:
  • The free edge‑of‑town parking competition,
  • The heavy N24/N74 through‑traffic in the town centre, and
  • The clear evidence and business mandate in favour of affordable or free short‑stay parking set out in the CTCHC.

A fair, evidence‑based approach to parking in Tipperary Town should support town‑centre recovery, not make it harder for people to live, shop and do business here.

Yours faithfully,

Your Name

Your Address

Your Email / Phone

DOWNLOAD Subm...es-0.docx
Share