Working For The Clampdown

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here’s only one type of clamping that true Greystonians like, and it has nothing to do with paying €120 fines in formerly free car parks.

Technically, of course, when one of these roaming parking enforcers pounce, they are doing nothing wrong.

Your parking ticket ran out ten minutes ago, and you must now pay a heavy, heavy fine for your incompetence. And that bad leg.

So, the guy clamping your car isn’t responsible. He’s just following orders.

And whether it’s The Beach House or SuperValu, the business you’ve parked your car to visit can hardly be blamed either. Leave the car park free, and sly day trippers would leave their bangers there all day long. Try to enforce a parking limit in-house, and you’ve got to employ some thick-skinned and fast-footed poor sod to patrol and scold – and fine – some very angry locals.

Angry locals who never forget a face. And will want to vent their frustration – and sudden financial collapse – on someone, anyone. Much easier for just about everyone if that’s a big faceless parking corporation like Nationwide Controlled Parking Systems or APCOA Parking than some innocent flesh and blood local.

Is it any wonder that one SuperValu parking enforcer recently informed a customer that he keeps a golf club in his van, and that he wasn’t afraid to use it? Here’s hoping he was joking.

It’s worth noting too that none of the Greystones businesses want to see a customer clamped, and they make no money from such fines either. Indeed, the Byrne clan have hammered out special arrangements with NCPS for those parking at The Beach House and The Burnaby which go far above and beyond the call of duty. They’re as angry as everybody else when, every now and then, a new guy comes along and doesn’t bother checking those special terms.

Still, a little humanity wouldn’t go amiss, with a spate of parking fines happening over the past week that could very easily be classed as sadistic. Siobhan Hanley had paid up to the traditional 6pm limit down beside The Happy Pear only to discover, upon returning at 6.30pm, that the meter had recently changed to 24-hour without fanfare, or even a notice on the meter itself. That quiet little game change cost Siobhan €120.

Ann McHugh suffered a similar fate rushing back to The Beach House car park last Thursday. Ten minutes late, and with a nice man from NCPS admitting that he had been observing her car, Ann was also hit with a €120 fine. The lady has been on the warpath ever since, appearing on East Coast Radio this morning to air her grievances.

Worth noting that The Beach House, The Burnaby and SuperValu will refund your parking fee when you’re spending money there. Also, when it comes to street parking, there is a ten-minute grace period allowed before and after a valid parking ticket is on your car. When it comes to the private car parks, the latter rule would appear to be a grey area though.

Bottom line, NCPS and APCOA are businesses – big businesses, at that – who are in the very lucrative line of fining people for being even just a little bit late. Which is, of course, cruel, but, legal. And maybe even fair, in some people’s eyes. Ask anyone with a Customers Only free parking space outside their shop.

We’ve emailed both parking companies, but, nada. Not that we were expecting apologies. If people feel they’ve been wrongly clamped, there are channels to follow, including appeals – you’ll find the Vehicle Clamping And Signage Regulations 2017 here – within 60 days of the vehicle being clamped or relocated. If the company you’re dealing with proves unsatisfactory, you can take it further, to the National Transport Authority here.

Some Greystonians have suggested simply removing the clamp yourself, a move achieved by 500 Dublin motorists in 2015. Advocates claim private companies don’t have the power to chase such illegal clamp removals, although Dublin Street Parking Services have successfully prosecuted such offenders, with one fine resulting in payment of €1,250.

So, what’s to be done? Just as some people will always miss the train, no matter what kind of time limit you put on parking, there will always be those who arrive back a little too late.

Surely, a barrier system, whereby you pay as you leave, would make far more sense than people having to race against the meter when a day goes a little Happy Pear-shaped and you forget the time?

Whatever the outcome, it’s clear that Greystones’ parking problem won’t be going away any time soon. Not if Ann McHugh, Siobhan Hanley, and so many others, can help it…