The comment this week that the free off-street parking in Fermoy was being ‘hijacked by workers’ in the town begs the question: Do these workers not realise the harm they are doing to their own jobs and the jobs of their colleagues?

As was pointed out, the initiative was designed to incentivise people to come into town to shop in the midst of a recession and to counteract in some way the difficulties of traffic congestion arising from the flood relief works.

This is an ongoing problem in Mitchelstown also. Even when the traffic warden was active in the town, he received unwarranted verbal abuse from a few individuals who insisted on parking as near as possible to their place of work. Needless to say, the absence of a traffic warden has seen the problem return.

Such actions are a real turn-off for people who are willing to come into our towns to shop. Instead of making it difficult, shop owners and their staff should be endeavouring to do all in their power to make space for the people who keep them in business – and in their jobs!