Paid parking in very small towns

Shannon in Clare (pop 10,000+) has 2 hours free parking, you pay after that. There are no streets in Shannon town centre (the 'town centre' is actually a shopping centre - thats 1960's planning for you). After the shopping centre was refurbished about 5 years ago the company that run the place started to charge for all parking (it was completely free before that). Trade dried up as the locals moved their shopping to Limerick and Ennis in protest. The company backed down eventually and the 2 hour free parking rule was imposed. There are still grumbles about it but its probably a fair compromise.
 
Dungarvan, Co. Waterford gives 30min free parking, after that you pay, its really handy if you're just popping into a shop for a few minutes.
I think they still have a free car parking beside one of the roundabouts on the bypass, only a 5min walk for the town centre.
 
Really appreciate everyone taking the time to add to this list - as usual AAM comes up trumps !
 
I wonder if anyone can confirm or deny that there is part of Lucan which has free parking - with a maximum stay period in place - rather than the pay and display system that they have in the centre of the town ?
 
Dunno about that. However I did notice recently that Ardee Co Louth has full pay & display parking with no "maxiumum stay free parking".
 
Fairly sure that Castleblayney, Co Monaghan has free parking - both on the main street(s) and in at least one town centre car park.
 
Thanks again to everyone for adding to this - we are making our case to the County Council so I'm very grateful for all input - either to do with the facts about parking restrictions, or how best to get a County Council to change a misguided decision.
 
Tuam in County Galway is €2 for 2 hours street parking(metered) but there is a state of the art Multi Store Car Park (c400 spaces) in the town charging just €2 PER DAY!
 
just out of interest, who is going to police it in very small towns? there's hardly going to be a dedicated traffic warden purely for kinnegad?
 
Balbriggan (population 15k) has P&D.

Main street and side streets all P&D, cost approx 20 cent for 10 minutes.

2 car parks (a few 100 spaces between both) off the main street are P&D, both besdie each other. The closer one to the main street in around 1 euro for an hour, max stay 3 hours I think. The other one (still only 100 meteres from main street) is 2 euro for a days parking - mainly used by train users. The train station car park is FOC at present (100 spaces approx)

There is a free cark park at the southern end of the town, the church car park - a few 100 spaces in it.

Some of the money genertated from the P&D has been used to install CCTV in the 3 cars parks in the town.

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There is also a multistory car park in the centre town, not sure of prices but I belive it's similar to the P&D as was developed with FCC.
 
The pay and display system for Kinnegad is supposed to be policed by traffic wardens from Mullingar who will come intermittently.

We just feel its over the top for a small town - and only applicable on the Main Street, with the supermarket on the edge of the town providing free parking. Also a good size Tesco is planned for a site away from the Main Street as well. Hard to see how people will justify paying to visit the small number of small, mainly family owned shops on the Main Street, when they could park free at the supermarket, or just do their business in the larger centres nearby like Mullingar.
 
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