Naas Municipal District is expected today to vote in favour of free parking in some areas of the town this Christmas. 

Councillors will be following in the footsteps of Castlebar, Tralee and Newry, who have also axed charges this festive season. 

On Newstalk Breakfast, Independent Ireland Councillor Bill Clear described it as a "hybrid system”. 

 “Our streets will still be charged, but our car parks will be free,” he explained. 

“And it's there to support small local businesses, to encourage people to shop there. 

“I mean, the alternative instead of going to our local Barker and Jones bookshop is going to Amazon. 

“And instead of going to Tuckmill Art Gallery, you go to Etsy; or instead of going to Children's Clothes Shop, Lavender Blue, you go to Shein.” 

A car parking machine with a Pay By Mobile phone option. Picture by: Alamy.com.

Also on the programme, Friends of the Irish Environment spokesperson Tony Lowes said the change might actually end up damaging the town’s economy. 

“This is what they call a classic perverse incentive,” he said. 

“In the sense that when we do this, what happens is we increase the congestion, we increase the traffic. 

“We all know the social reasons, which is that when we arrive, the car park is full because it's free and they're off for the day. 

“But there's also  environmental impacts that come along where we're increasing the traffic,we're increasing our emissions.

“But the odd thing is the economic effect; the economic effect is less of a footfall in the local shops and there's less income that comes in.”

Mr Lowes predicted that the council and traders would ultimately lose money. 

“Certainly in the case of Kildare, this money is the only real money the council has to use on sustainable transport - walking and a cycle path,” he said. 

“So altogether, if you look at it from the social, the environmental or the economic point of view, it's not a very good idea.” 

Active travel

Cllr Clear disagreed, arguing that while Friends of the Earth do “excellent work”, they seem unaware that Naas has already introduced a number of active travel schemes. 

“We have five roads come into our town, two are top class cycle lanes, excellent footpaths, pedestrian crossings, much easier for people to walk or cycle down town,” he argued.

“We've actually brought in a greenway - which was highly controversial - and we've got a lot of abuse over Naas to Sallins, which people can use to trave lbetween the village. 

“And we do have money; we don't have enough and we want more - but we're very progressive in this council.” 

Main image: A person inserts money into a Pay & Display parking machine in Dublin. Picture by: Leon Farrell/RollingNews.ie