Council: Over 600 parking fines issued
“Cork City Council is very cognisant of the impact that illegal parking can have and take our responsibilities in this matter very seriously.”
That’s according to a City Hall spokesperson after a petition emerged online this week asking for a public consultation on dangerous parking.
This consultation is to help Cork City Council “fully understand the impact this is having on communities, transport users, and other groups”.
The Public Consultation on Dangerous Parking in Cork City petition on Change.org said that there’s a growing sense of worry held by many people who live, work, shop, and visit Cork city that existing parking management practices are unable to address dangerous parking in Cork city.
The petition said: “Dangerous parking is parking in a way that increases the risk of collision or injury to people. It can occur on footpaths, public plazas, cycle lanes, pedestrian crossings, and on double yellow lines. Every day, images are shared on the @badparkingcork social media account documenting the scale of the issue and yet little seems to be done to tackle it.”
It added: “A number of options should be put forward for consultation including increased fines, education, design solutions, a tow-away service, and reporting systems.
“Figures obtained by the media and councillors show that only a handful of fines are handed out each week to people for parking in this manner.
“Cork is a great city with big ambitions. It is not appropriate for Council officials to ignore this issue in the hope it will go away or only make policy based solely on what they perceive traders to want.”
Responding to the petition, a City Hall spokesperson said: “As part of Cork City Council’s management of the city, the Traffic Warden Service provide parking management services across Cork city. They enforce the traffic legislation in a fair and impartial manner.
“It is unfortunate that inaccurate information regarding the issuing of parking fines is in circulation.
“In the months of June 2020 to October 2020, 515 parking fines have been issued for parking on a footpath and 158 fines for parking on a cycle track or causing an obstruction.
“As can be seen from this data, contrary to the information in circulation, a significant number of tickets are indeed issued for offences which cause an obstruction or danger to road users.”
Cork City Council said its enforcement priorities can be summarised as follows:
Public safety – to discourage instances of the illegal parking of vehicles causing danger to the general public e.g. parking on footpaths, on or too near pedestrian crossings, at junctions, on cycle lanes etc.
Traffic flow – to discourage the illegal parking on clearways or causing an obstruction on major traffic routes.
City centre business deliveries/public transport – to regulate and monitor the use of loading bays, bus stops, disabled parking bays and taxi ranks.
Turnover of spaces in the disc parking area – to promote optimum and correct use of disc parking spaces which are designated short stay spaces and are intended for shoppers and people who transact business in the city centre.