NORTHSIDE Fianna Fail election candidate Joe Crowley has accused LIT students of causing a parking “nightmare” for Woodview residents.

NORTHSIDE Fianna Fail election candidate Joe Crowley has accused LIT students of causing a parking “nightmare” for Woodview residents.

He has called on the traffic corps to resolve the parking “mayhem” in the area, saying at present emergency vehicles cannot get down many of the roads.

And he wants the council to get tough with people who are parked improperly in the area.

“I have spent quite a number of hours with residents in the area and I have studied the traffic movements in Woodview, the Cratloe Road, Mayorstone, and some other areas, and without doubt the proximity of cars along the kerbs, on both sides of the roadways, has the potential to be a serious factor in an accident and even a possible fatality,” he said.

Mr Crowley said that although residents are divided over whether students are to blame, the majority want the issue resolved once and for all.

He said many people studying at LIT simply cannot afford the college’s €2 per day parking fee.

“At present, students have no viable car parking within the campus of LIT, so they park on the roadways. The various scenarios here are: parking on footpaths with yellow lines, parking on double yellow lines, parking on both sides of the roadway, narrowing the width of the roadway. Another option has parking in limited spaces in LIT at €2 per day. For poor students, €10 extra per week on top of petrol and food is not an option,” he explained.

He said residents are calling for traffic corps to penalise “illegal and improper parking”.

A polite, but not a forceful conversation also needs to be held with LIT on the parking problem, Mr Crowley added.