Galway City a no-go for motorhomers

Galway City harbour parking closed to motorhomes

If you were thinking about taking a trip to Ireland in your motorhome then it would be best to plan a route that doesn’t involve Galway. Up until now the favourite place for parking up in the city has been the harbour where the Galway Harbour Company has provided facilities for motorhomers. That’s no longer the case because the Planning Section of Galway City Council issued an edit to the Harbour Company, compelling them to desist providing appropriate parking and facilities. The reasoning for this from the Council included, “The parking of motorhomes at this location represents a change in the authorised use of the land, from temporary car parking use permitted under PI. Ref. 12/67 (permitted until 26/06/2018), to a motorhome parking use.”

This, however, appears to be rather spurious reasoning, according to Colin McCarthy, Hon. Secretary of the Phoenix Motorhome Club of Ireland, who countered that, “Having consulted PI. Ref. 12/67 there appears to be no qualifying conditions with regard to the category of vehicle which may use the facility, Condition 5 confirms that 'the permission relates to the use of the land for parking purposes' no reference to any specific category of vehicle is to be found anywhere in the correspondence file relating to 12/67.”

The Council also stated that, “The parking of motor homes at this location also gives rise to issues of traffic and pedestrian safety, as the parking spaces are sized for cars only.”

This of course neglected to understand that campervans and smaller motorhomes are the same size as SUVs, MPVs and LGVs, all of which can be parked in the standard 2.4m wide parking space. As well as this, under European law, motorhomes are in the same category as cars in that they are an EU Category M1 vehicle and as such are legally able to park in the same places as cars. Colin added that, “If a vehicle is parked is such a way as to cause issues of traffic and pedestrian safety the driver of that vehicle itself should be challenged under the relevant Road Traffic Act or Bye-law which the driver may be contravening.”

This closure means that there is no dedicated motorhome parking anywhere within the Galway City boundaries. When MMM requested a comment from the Council, it declined to answer, amid reports of disagreements between individual councilors over the issue.

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