Waterford councillors give go ahead for Dungarvan’s first made-for–purpose campervan facility
Waterford councillors have given the go-ahead for Dungarvan’s first made-for–purpose campervan facility following a public consultation process.
A site at Quann’s, adjacent to the Dungarvan’s sports centre and a kilometre from the town centre, will host eight parking bays along with water and wastewater services.
Bringing the plans to November’s Dungarvan-Lismore municipal district meeting for approval, senior roads engineer Gabriel Hynes said the consultation process had originally proposed 11 bays and had attracted seven submissions.
One submission from the chief fire officer had called for the proposed separation distance between the bays to be expanded from 1.8 metres to 3 metres in the interest of safety.
To comply with this requirement, the council reduced the number of bays to eight.
Motorhome tourism continues to expand especially amongst professional retirees, bringing in their wake a robust spending power.
The realisation of campervans' economic potential, allied to negotiations with representatives of campervan organisations like Phoenix Motorhome Ireland, paved the way for the current development.
Cllr John Pratt said it was important that Waterford Council was now seen as welcoming campervans.
Generally speaking the overnight charge for motorhome parking is about €10-€15, within limited staying times. Mr Hynes said these logistics for Dungarvan will be established after the infrastructure is completed early next year.
Mr Hynes said the council realised a need to strike a balance between the provision for car parking provision and campervan requirements.
The engineer said he hoped that the development at Quann’s would precede similar developments from the private sector on the town’s outskirts.
Director of Services Kieran Kehoe said the town was open to “provision for all types of visitors”.
