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A campaign to make parking in the centre of the capital free over Christmas to encourage shoppers has been rejected by Dublin city council. Shops across the city are expected to open next

month when the lockdown is lifted before the festive season. “Dublin Can be Heaven”, a group of 65 businesses in the creative and Grafton quarters, contacted the council asking for help with

its campaign to attract shoppers who commute by car. The group claimed “the majority” of its customers commuted to the city centre by car, and pointed out that Cork city council was

exploring offering free parking. However, it did not provide any data to support the commuting claim. “Yet we have met with a point-blank refusal of help from the chief executive of DCC,

Owen Keegan,” the group said. “He wrote: ‘It would be contrary to city council policy to incentivise access to the city centre even at off-peak times, by private car’. Advertisement “In

plain speech, ‘no to cars’ is the mantra; the CEO is sticking religiously to his policy (even for these three weeks in unprecedented trading conditions). He doesn’t seem to care that the

survival of many small businesses is at stake, already thousands of businesses have gone bust and many more likely to follow.” The council told _The Times_: “The city council has no plans to

suspend or relax paid parking controls in order to facilitate shoppers driving into the city centre, as this would be contrary to city council policy.” The campaign group is made up of a

range of businesses in Dublin city centre including Brooks hotel, Dylan Bradshaw hair salon, and Nutri Healthstore, but is primarily made up of owner-run boutiques. It said that the local

authorities could replicate Cork city council where customers can avail of two hours free parking at council-run multi-storey car parks. The city council said this promotion was introduced

in June to support retailers. It said: “DCC maintains that they actively consult their ratepayers in their decision-making process. It is our contention that the so-called consultation is

organised so as to produce a predetermined result and validate a decision that has already been made at executive level.” Advertisement It added: “Over 91 per cent of respondents to our

recent survey said they did not feel that DCC had engaged in meaningful consultation with them.” Tara Murphy, owner of Solomon Fine Art and a member of the hospitality group, said:

“Government is discouraging the use of public transport, so city centre parking must be either subsidised or promoted by DCC. Otherwise, how can we expect shoppers to come into the city?”

Mary Whelan, Dublin Can Be Heaven spokeswoman and the owner of Eirlooms, added: “Most of my customers travel by car and they don’t have the confidence to use public transport at the moment

anyway.” Dublin Chamber, a group which represents more than 1,300 businesses, said it was important to ensure customers could commute by car into the city centre during the pandemic. Graeme

McQueen, the group’s spokesman, said: “There is a clear lack of confidence amongst consumers about using public transport during the Covid pandemic. When it comes to going shopping, there’s

a clear desire amongst people to drive to where they are going. They seem to feel safer this way.” Advertisement Mr McQueen added that DCC’s rejection of the campaign was understandable and

encouraged car parks to look at deals for Christmas shoppers instead. “There is a good opportunity here for the retailers to work directly with the car parks to facilitate this. We’ve

already seen some car parks doing this — Arnott’s for example have deals on their car park and Q Park on Drury Street have offers for shoppers,” he said. He also said there must be a focus

on marketing Dublin city centre as a safe environment for Christmas shopping and as “always open for business”. “Businesses in the city have gone to great lengths to ensure that they’re

compliant with all safety regulations, which means that when they do eventually reopen a really safe and positive shopping environment awaits,” he said.