Council
withdraws unauthorised permit

Longford Town Council has withdrawn a parking permit that was issued without authority to a high ranking member of staff in the shopping centre, entitling them to free parking at the Centre.

The subject was brought up at February’s Town Council meeting by Cllr Paul Connell who accused the Council of issuing a new permit. At the meeting Cllr Connell said either everyone working at the Centre should be issued a permit, or no one should, in the interest of fairness.

Under the terms of an agreement with Tesco and the Council at the time of the introduction of paid parking at the shopping centre, parking permits were to be issued to staff at the Centre but these were not to be replaced when staff left or retired.

After Cllr Connell brought it up at the Town Council meeting, an investigation was launched which revealed a permit had indeed been issued.

In a statement to this paper, Town Clerk Dan Rooney said: “Unfortunately, one of my staff without authorisation issued a new permit to a new employee in the Centre and this is the subject of the query at the meeting. I am not in a position to comment on this as I was not aware that it had been issued. This permit has now been withdrawn.”

The car park is owned by the Council but when the original Shopping Centre was built, a lease was agreed between the operators of the Centre, Tesco and the Council with the purpose of attracting shoppers to the town and to promote the new Centre.