[Article] Clampers are set to be out in force at football final

Victor

http://home.eircom.net/content/unison/national/3615085?view=Eircomnet

Clampers are set to be out in force at football final
From:The Irish Independent
Sunday, 18th July, 2004

EOGHAN WILLIAMS

THEY have been branded the ultimate spoilsports - now clampers have vowed to again turn out in force during a Croke Park football final.

Fans at today's Leinster Senior Football Final will have their cars immobilised even if they are trying to keep roads clear. The clampers have warned they will pounce on cars that park with two wheels on the pavement in a bid to leave room for passing traffic. This means that when Laois and Westmeath supporters leave Croke Park they will face rows of clamped cars which aren't even parked on double yellow lines.

And in a development that will reinforce the view that clampers apply one law tomotorists and another to themselves, it has emerged that clamping chiefs havereceived complaints thatone of their vans parked illegally while workers took a smoking break.

Over 30 GAA fans' cars were clamped last weekend outside Bertie Ahern's constituency office. At one point, three clamping vans and two tow-trucks descended on a single street in Drumcondra.

Local residents are warning Laois and Westmeath supporters that the clampers make a habit of targetting match-day traffic.

Cara Carson, who lives on one of the affected streets, Botanic Avenue said: "They [clampers] are just waiting for this to happen every week. People are parking with a wheel on the pavement out of courtesy. If they parked on the road, the technically legal way, no one could get past. I just hate the way they're spoiling people's day at the game. They're such nit-pickers." A spokeswoman for Control Plus, the company charged with clamping in Dublin, said its workers were responding to complaints from residents.

However, it has emerged that some residents in the Drumcondra area have lodged complaints with the company about the clampers themselves.

They report that a clamper van parked in a bus stop and that, when challenged, the driver said he was stopping for a smoking break.

When this was reported to Control Plus, the man taking the complaint said: "Those stupid f***ers. They're at it again. They have no idea."

The company brings in about €4.5m in clamping fines each year, the equivalent of €75 for each of the 60,000 vehicles it immobilises.

FX Meister

It's a joke, places that people have parked in for years are now targets for clampers. Last year a cheeky ba$tard opened the gates on my driveway and parked in my drive, I presume because I had a for sale sign up and was in town at the time he parked there. I arrived back and rang the gardai and they said it wasn't their problem. So I took out a chain and lock and locked the **** in there. When he came back from the game I went outside and asked him why he had parked there and his reply was, "sure I thought no one lived there". I told him it would cost him €50 to have his car released and he went mad, threatened to call the Gardai. I said he was welcome to but if he did I would head off and wouldn't be back until the following day. I knew his reg so he didn't dare to try and sort out getting the lock cut. He stumped up the €50 and tore off like mad, with me laughing. But it is a disgrace the way the clampers pick on these drivers. Only last week I saw a car outside my workplsace with tax and insurance eight months out of date and all he had was a ticket, no clamp to stop the uninsured spa driving off.

Gillo

For the footie fans;
Don't worry, the clamps aren't big enough to work on tractor wheels.

For the people of Drumcondra;
Nice one!!!

For the people who complain about clampers;
Don't park where you are not ment to


If you get to Croke park and there is nowhere to park, tuff, you should of got there earlier.

jank

If you get to Croke park and there is nowhere to park, tuff, you should of got there earlier.

id like to see you say that if dublin play a game in thurles sometime :rolleyes:

Gillo

Thats why I'd go early, if for some reason I decieded to go at all.

Read the post!!!

Imposter

Originally posted by gillo
For the footie fans;
Don't worry, the clamps aren't big enough to work on tractor wheels.

And for any dubs not familiar with the clamps they don't work on horses either.

Gillo

Good come back Imposter, put a smile on my face, but horses don't require parking tickets.

ChipZilla

Good on ya FX Meister! That's the sweetest 50 quid ever - I would have framed it.








Looks like gillo's talking about some old childish sh*te but luckily he's on my ignore list...

:rolleyes:

Gillo

Thing is I don't get the problem here in the first place.

You park illegally, you get clamped. What next you have no money so it's ok to rob a bank???

sorry if I completely missed the boat, but it seems logical enough to me. Clampers are sent out to target specific problem area's, ask anyone livign in Drumcondra, it's a problem area anytime there is a match.

That'as why the Bertie Bowl should of gone ahead, it would of had ample parking.

BrianD

The clamping of match goers does put the attention back onto the GAA and what a shambles of an organisation they are. I can accept that the existing site was used for historic reasons instead of a greenfield site. What I would like to know why the GAA weren't obliged to pay for upgrading of rail faclities or the construction of a coach park with park and ride facilites. Perhaps a multi-storey car park instead of a hotel?

The GAA have scant regards for local residents and just assume it is OK for Drumcondra to become a surface car park on match day. You don't even have the AA signposting or any signposting that you would normally have for a large public event. The GAA just assume that everybody knows where they are going!

Gillo

Anyone heard if they are out again this week?

With two matchs on, I'd say there'll be alot of illegal parking.

tk123

Ah nice on FX Meister I'm up off Botanic Ave and we ended up getting a driveway so peeps couldn't block the gate(we can't get the bikes out if the gate is blocked). Now everyone on my road without a drive has to put out their bins to stop people parking there. Did you know that if a car has no licence plates it's seen as being stolen and they will tow it away! Also did you ever see the guys standing in the car spaces outside the park telling people where to park and then asking for monies when it's FREE to park there?!?!?!

Gillo

They are all over town during the week, apart from Thursday morning when the sign on!!

Should get a few guards out to do that, at least you wouldn't have to worry about getting your car scraped when you don't pay.

Bee

Me Thinks if they "decentralised" Croke Park to the midlands and built access to it from the four corners of Ireland along with a major car park free from the thug like behaviour of Control Plus it would do more for local economies than the madcap anti tax payer FF/PD civil servant decentralisation plans.

Bee

FX Meister

On Iona Crescent there is a stretch of the road that goes round a bend, not a large bend, it has a double yellow line but people have been parking on it for the last 20 years at least, last year the clampers clamped two out of the 6 cars on it, a BMW and a Merc. There's no doubt they deliberately target cares and cars like these. Surely they could have more deserving people in town? They pulled up outside my house to drop a car off that was parked some where illegally, I asked if they would mind dropping it on the far side of the road, where no cars park usually, and they told me to f**k off and mind my own business, then moved the lorry to dump it right outside my house. Majority of Clampers = Scum, plain and simple

posted by gillo

Clampers are sent out to target specific problem area's, ask anyone livign in Drumcondra, it's a problem area anytime there is a match.

cyclopath2001

>> cars that park with two wheels on the pavement in a bid to leave room for passing traffic. <<

And block wheelchairs.

parsi

One of the houses a few doors up from me has three cars - 2 park in the driveway "nose-to-tail" with the tail crossing the patch and 1foot into the road.. the third parks beside the footpatch abutting the tail that sticks out.. so no acess for kids, buggies, wheelchairs or anything - they all have to go on the road..

John R

Originally posted by parsi
One of the houses a few doors up from me has three cars - 2 park in the driveway "nose-to-tail" with the tail crossing the patch and 1foot into the road.. the third parks beside the footpatch abutting the tail that sticks out.. so no acess for kids, buggies, wheelchairs or anything - they all have to go on the road..

A regular dose of smashed lights would solve that.

Flukey

Sure there is some bad parking about, but some of these clampers just clamp like there is no tomorrow. The funny thing is that once they are clamped the drivers can't move them when they do return, which only compounds the problem. Without the clamp the driver could drive off and then the blockage would be gone. Clamped cars usually end up being an obstruction for longer than they would if they had not been clamped. The way some of those clampers go, they'd need a fleet of trucks to take away the cars and of course while they are loading the cars on to the back of the trucks, the trucks themselves are causing an even bigger obstruction. A lot of the clamping is done for pure profit not just to control parking.

Victor

Originally posted by FX Meister
On Iona Crescent there is a stretch of the road that goes round a bend, not a large bend, it has a double yellow line but people have been parking on it for the last 20 years at least, last year the clampers clamped two out of the 6 cars on it, a BMW and a Merc. There's no doubt they deliberately target cares and cars like these. Surely they could have more deserving people in town?

All areas are targeted, with different priorities given to different areas and different issues. Blocking a bus lane is at high risk of being towed. Parking on the fottpath at the end of a cul-de-sac is low priority.

Originally posted by FX Meister
They pulled up outside my house to drop a car off that was parked some where illegally, I asked if they would mind dropping it on the far side of the road, where no cars park usually, and they told me to f**k off and mind my own business, then moved the lorry to dump it right outside my house.

Now is it a public road or not? Were you snotty to them or not?

Vexorg

Ah the joys of match days in Drumcondra... Cant leave the house before the match or you are unlikely to be able to park within a mile of the house when you get back, cant have the parents or friends around at their convenience as they cant get to park anywhere.

Last Saturday, I needed to go up to my parent house, their alarm was going off and the monitoring service called me. Went out to find someone parellel parked completey blocking the cul de sac, and the neighbours car that could have been moved was away for the weekend.

This is a pretty regular occurance, its hard to understand why someone would knowingly block in 3 cars while they go off any watch a match!.

This sort of discourteous behaviour is difficult to accept, it has been getting worse or the last few years, especially since the capacity of Croke Park was increased.

If The GAA were forced to include the cost of train/bus transport on every ticket, maybe this would encourage more match goers to leave their cars behind and get public transport to the match.

One Major gripe I have about match goers, why must they urinate on the trees outside our houses before they go home, I must set up a website of ppl pissing in the small stretch outside the house:) a sort of show and shame... you can log in and see if you can identify the offending individuals.

V.

tk123

Well make sure you put electic wires up too and then they'll get a shock!!

Flukey

They should open a station at the Canal End of the ground, similar to the one in Lansdowne Road. That was the intention, wasn't it? I am a very regular visitor to Croke Park, but I don't drive or piss in peoples gardens so I am one of the good guys. Parking is naturally a problem around the area as I have often seen and I know people living in the area and the problems they have. Better public transport, like opening the rail line at the Canal End and other initiiatives could reduce the problem. Opening up Clonliffe College more often than they do could help too. Ther are lots of things that can be done around Croke Park, but the clampers are only adding to the problem if anything.

Gillo

Perhaps The GAA providing a shuttle bus service from the city center or some of the local carparks ie, Jervis st or behind UGC. Considering the money they make it could be provided for free.

cyclopath2001

Decentralise Croke Park!

Victor

Flukey wrote:

Sure there is some bad parking about, but some of these clampers just clamp like there is no tomorrow.

Condemning productivity are we?

The funny thing is that once they are clamped the drivers can't move them when they do return, which only compounds the problem. Without the clamp the driver could drive off and then the blockage would be gone. Clamped cars usually end up being an obstruction for longer than they would if they had not been clamped. The way some of those clampers go, they'd need a fleet of trucks to take away the cars and of course while they are loading the cars on to the back of the trucks, the trucks themselves are causing an even bigger obstruction.

Of course the threat of being clamped and the potential delay seems to have generally worked. Without clamping, people would park anywhere they wanted with virtual impunity.

Flukey wrote:

A lot of the clamping is done for pure profit not just to control parking.

Dublin City Council Does not make a profit from it's clamping operations. The revenue from parking fees did however rise sharply when clamping was introduced, indicating clamping works as a revenue protection measure, not as a revenue generating measure.

Separately, Control Plus, as a private business ,does make a profit (as they are entitled to do), but this is based on providing a specified level of service. It's not like they get the whole clamping fee to rub in their grubby little hands.

Flukey

Yes, but how is that level of service measured? If they don't clamp anyone at all because no one parked badly, would this be providing their level of service. It is a bit like the police, comparing their's with other districts by the amount of arrests. So if one division arrests few, it is often seen that they are not doing a good job, when another division has high totals of arrests, and not that they may have almost solved the crime problem. If the clampers come back to the depot after their shift and say to the boss "Sorry gov, we didn't clamp anyone today," he is hardly going to be told well done. If then in turn goes to the council and tell them they have clamped nobody, even if evertyone had been parking legally it is not going to look well. So it is in the interests of the clamping firms to be seen to be doing some level of clamping and we've all heard of incidents where they have stepped over the line in their workings. Some of these guys would clamp an ambulance or at an emergency if they thought they'd get away with it. It was lucky that that child in Galway a few months ago, did not have meningitis.

Victor

Flukey wrote:

Yes, but how is that level of service measured?

Quite simply - put x amount of people clamping. Have them patrol. When they find a vehicle that is breaking y law / bye-law and ticket / clamp them. Clamping should take z minutes per clamp. Revert to patrol. Separately provide a/b/c services in unclamping, towing / storage, payments, etc.

Flukey wrote:

Some of these guys would clamp an ambulance or at an emergency if they thought they'd get away with it.

Why would they bother? Ambulances are exempt from the vast majority of road traffic / parking legislation. Hence no ticket, no clamp.

Flukey wrote:

It was lucky that that child in Galway a few months ago, did not have meningitis.

If they genuinely thought the child was in danger, why did they not get an ambulance / stop the first passing car?