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'Disparity' in parking meter numbers causes anger

Tuesday, 29 April 2008

The Dún Laoghaire Community Association has expressed its anger over what it claims is a huge disparity between the number of pay and display parking meters in the Dún Laoghaire area and the rest of the county.
Details obtained by Cllr Denis O’Callaghan (Lab) on the numbers of council parking meters in each of the electoral wards in Dún Laoghaire Rathdown show that over 80 per cent of them are located in Dún Laoghaire, Blackrock, Dalkey and Ballybrack.
The coastal areas of the county including Blackrock, Dún Laoghaire, Dalkey and Ballybrack account for 245 of the 291 Pay-and-Display parking meters with some 165 meters in the Dún Laoghaire area alone.
In comparison, there are only 27 parking meters in the Dundrum area, 19 in Glencullen and none in Stillorgan.
Following the recent decision by councillors to approve the introduction of clamping by 14 votes to 11, the Dún Laoghaire Community Association said the figures on the meters have the potential to bring the decision making process of the county council into question.
Persistent offenders with three or more unpaid parking tickets – including offences arising from pay and display – are liable to be clamped.
Other offences that will result in clamping will include parking in disabled spaces, loading bays and double yellow lines but offences associated with pay and display parking and parking in residential areas are excluded.
This effectively means that more cars are likely to be clamped in areas where pay and display is in operation.
In a statement, the Dún Laoghaire Community Association said the decision to introduce clamping indicated “that the area [Dún Laoghaire] is nothing but a large municipal car-park”.
“With 165 meters in the Dún Laoghaire ward alone, residents and visitors to the town are wholly justified in describing the pay and display system as a local taxation measure penalising those living in the town and actually driving business out of the town,” it was stated.
The overwhelming majority of county councillors representing the coastal areas of the county are vehemently opposed to the introduction of clamping.
The community association said the councillors voted against the measure because it would adversely and solely affect their electorates in Blackrock, Dún Laoghaire and Dalkey and, in fact, inflict serious damage on business and destroy local jobs.
“The pay and display scheme is a locally imposed tax on vehicle owners residing, visiting or doing business in the town of Dún Laoghaire,” the association added. “Car clamping is a blunt instrument of fear imposed to ensure the collection of this unjust and iniquitous local tax.”
During the debate on clamping at this month’s county council meeting Cllr O’Callaghan said he feared the implementation of the measure would adversely affect the Dún Laoghaire and Blackrock areas more than other parts of the county.
“We are all in the process of trying to nurse Dún Laoghaire back to life,” he said. “It is dying on its feet and I am on public record in saying that it is like a ghost town at night, so why should we embark on a mission to worsen that situation,” he asked.
The county council was unavailable to comment on the community association’s statement.

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