Free Christmas parking in Athlone

From Thursday of this week, December 17, shoppers in Athlone can look forward to free Christmas parking in all Council car parks in the town.

This is the eleventh consecutive year of the welcome initiative,. The proposal for free parking this year was put forward by Athlone Mayor, Cllr. Aengus O'Rourke, at last month's meeting of the Athlone-Moate Municipal District who said shoppers should be given an incentive to stay local and support local. The proposal was unanimously supported.

Cllr. Aengus O'Rourke said the temporary suspension of parking charges was an effort on behalf of the council to encourage support for local businesses over the Christmas season. “As has happened in other years, Westmeath County Council is providing some amendments to the parking charges regime to give a small but significant incentive to shoppers to shop local and support local businesses at Christmas time.

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“We should all bear in mind that every euro spent locally supports local jobs and keeps money in this county’s economy. I would encourage people to avail of the free parking provision next week and to consider the benefits of shopping locally this Christmas,” he said.

"This initiative would not be possible were it not for the support of my colleagues in Westmeath County Council and Athlone Chamber of Commerce, I would like to thank them all.

Athlone Chamber President Alan Shaw said, “Athlone Chamber is delighted to be associated with the free car parking initiative in Athlone. This will give a boost to our Members in retail who will benefit from increased shoppers to the town between the 17 and 24 December. We wish to thank the Mayor, members of Athlone Municipal District and the Director of Services, Barry Kehoe, for providing the necessary funding."