Shoppers And Parking

Sir, - Mr Niall Morrissey (July 16th) asks a very fair question on the pricing arrangements for car parking in the city centre…

Sir, - Mr Niall Morrissey (July 16th) asks a very fair question on the pricing arrangements for car parking in the city centre. There are sufficient car parking spaces to accommodate up to 86,000 shoppers' cars per day in the city centre. These spaces are charged on an incremental basis so as to reduce the number of commuter cars using them. Generally, 90 per cent of spaces are used by shoppers. When car parking charges were not progressively scaled to give priority to shoppers, commuters dominated over 90 per cent of available spaces and shoppers were unable to park.

With the present regime shoppers have priority and dominate the available spaces. It would be preferable if prices were lower, but priority must be given to shoppers' cars in the city centre. - Yours, etc., M. A. M. Ryder, Management Board, DCCBA,

Dawson Street, Dublin 2.