Clamping in DART Station car parks

is_that_so

OK got done today in Portmarnock DART station car park paid €90 + €5 for CC payments :mad: . All down to a set of arbitrary double yellow lines inside the car park. Not a happy bunny and completely put off using public transport.

Can someone please tell me when this came about and can they actually do it?
Also are Irish Rail allowed to put double yellow lines in car parks?
Are they legal seeing that it is not actually a road?

mikemac

This is one brilliant website:
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/travel-and-recreation/traffic-and-parking/parking_fines_and_vehicle_clamping

Athough Irish rail is a State body, I'm going to assume it's a private car park going by your post.

Private car parks

Private car parks are not regulated by the Government in any way. That is to say, they are privately owned and revenue earned from parking in these car parks goes directly to the owners and not your local authority. The prices charged in private car parks vary from place to place, ranging from about 80 cent to 2.50 euro per hour. Prices are determined by the car park owner. Prices charged by a local authority in its car parks will be decided by the authority itself.


Vehicle clamping
....Clamping services are also common in car parks of hotels, hospitals, universities and shopping centres to discourage long-term parking at the expense of staff, customers or clients. Clamping on private property is not covered by legislation and owners must make sure that there are adequate signs and warnings notifying the public that clamping is in operation and that full contact details for the company enforcing the clamping are easily available.

Where there adequate signs OP? Tbh honest I don't think an appeal will work as you know full well that double yellow lines mean no parking at any time.
I reckon they're perfectly entitled to put them in their car park. Otherwise people might park too close to the gate or might make certain passages far too narrow. Maybe you were out of the way and blocking noone but Irish Rail will either clamp everyone or clamp noone.

Going by the website, the government has no role in regulating the car park.

Suck it up, I'm afraid.

is_that_so

Thanks for that. Forgot about that site. Sums us up all over.
All I got was David McWilliams , who makes sense in this case and echoes my own thoughts on the whole mess.

Yes signs all around. The irony of this is not lost on me and beyond being less than friendly to the declamper there is nothing that can be done. However it was noticeable that cars parked in disabled area did not get clamped. At least one had no correct sticker, also a clamping offence, a fact the declamper seemed indifferent to.

ixoy

Funny that they clamp you but don't go near all the ignorant shower who insist on parking on the pavement outside the Links just down the road (also monitored by the NCPS). They're genuinely blocking up the path for people who might need it and, despite a threat of a clampdown, nothing's been done about it and yet they find time to pick on your much smaller infringement.

Oh and yeah, I noticed that car parked there earlier today that was in the disabled space and had no permit displayed.

Pineapple stu

I have no sympathy with anyone who is clamped at this station.The last time i was there,people had abandoned their cars in some stupid areas with little or no consideration for others i.e. double and triple parking and leaving them in any place they wanted, thus making it impossible to drive round it unless you are on a push bike and people being unable to move their cars until the owners of the cars thats blocking them in arrives back from home. Complete and utter idiocy.

Bluetonic

ixoy wrote:

Funny that they clamp you but don't go near all the ignorant shower who insist on parking on the pavement outside the Links just down the road (also monitored by the NCPS).

Surely the path outside The Links in a public pathway and as such the responsibility of the council to clamp, not NCPS.

ixoy

Bluetonic wrote:

Surely the path outside The Links in a public pathway and as such the responsibility of the council to clamp, not NCPS.

Well I can only go on the signs I saw mounted there, which said that the parking was monitored by the NCPS - although these signs later disappeared. I take your basic point though.
There were leaflets distributed on to parked cars, warning about a clampdown as well - perhaps it was the City Council, perhaps it was an iniative by a residents committee.

Either way, it's still a dangerous practice - if the cars are parked flush against the wall, then it's passable but many aren't and they wouldn't be leaving enough room for someone in a wheelchair, or a mother with a pram, to get by. Added to that, you have cars driving down the path towards you in the morning when you should be able to walk safely on it (treating it like a road). It's something that afflicts many estates near stations I imagine.

Bluetonic

There really should be bollards along the edge of the path.

enda1

micmclo wrote:

Athough Irish rail is a State body, I'm going to assume it's a private car park going by your post.

I think Irish rail is actually a private company owned by a state body body, but otherwise everything else looks about right.

is_that_so

cymro wrote:

I have no sympathy with anyone who is clamped at this station.The last time i was there,people had abandoned their cars in some stupid areas with little or no consideration for others i.e. double and triple parking and leaving them in any place they wanted, thus making it impossible to drive round it unless you are on a push bike and people being unable to move their cars until the owners of the cars thats blocking them in arrives back from home. Complete and utter idiocy.

I agree completely on how people park but that car park is an atrocious design. Not having used that station in at least a year I was unaware of how bad things had gone. Yet it still leaves me extremely annoyed, between the arbitrary use of clamping and the approach to parking in the WHOLE area. I think it sums up the problems that exist for country stations in the middle of nowhere. The fact that there is no bus service to speak of doesn't help either so people have very limited choice in how to get there.

A further reason for the car park being so full is that there is inadequate parking in Malahide as well and commuters opt to drive the few miles to Portmarnock instead.

TBH clamping is really not the approach you want if you are genuinely serious about getting people to use public transport. Clamping is fine when you want to keep city streets free or stop people using a hotel/company car park. The car park is for the the public to use the services, yet Irish Rail are either utterly incompetent or don't care to come up with any sensible way of addressing the problem. All they have managed to do done, as posted, is push the problem out of the car park and into the surrounding area.

There are surely other better ways to deal with this.

dereko1969

what was so arbitrary about the positioning of the yellow lines? it seems to me that if you were on the yellow lines then the clamping was not arbitrary. were the yellow lines nowhere near an exit or to allow a clear view?

is_that_so

dereko1969 wrote:

what was so arbitrary about the positioning of the yellow lines? it seems to me that if you were on the yellow lines then the clamping was not arbitrary. were the yellow lines nowhere near an exit or to allow a clear view?

Not sure what purpose those yellow lines serve tbh. IMO they are too far from the entrance to have no purpose. As for the arbitrariness of clamping, there was at least one car in the disabled area without a proper permit. I verified this. That is a clamping offence yet it remained unclamped. My clamping buddy didn't seem to care.

ixoy

It's going to be interesting to see how the station copes with the proposal for over 1000 houses to be built nearby (and that's just Phase A).

Victor

Got photos?

Mr. Presentable

is_that_so wrote:

Not sure what purpose those yellow lines serve tbh. IMO they are too far from the entrance to have no purpose. As for the arbitrariness of clamping, there was at least one car in the disabled area without a proper permit. I verified this. That is a clamping offence yet it remained unclamped. My clamping buddy didn't seem to care.

Had no more clamps left in the van when he got to the disabled parking? Or they prioritise those causing obstruction - at least the car in the disabled space was in a space? Who knows!

is_that_so

Victor wrote:

Got photos?

Regrettably no as I beat a fairly hasty retreat once the declamper showed up and I am not likely to darken its gates again. Perhaps some of the regular users of the station may be be able to oblige.

ixoy

is_that_so wrote:

Regrettably no as I beat a fairly hasty retreat once the declamper showed up and I am not likely to darken its gates again. Perhaps some of the regular users of the station may be be able to oblige.

If it's the car that was pretty much in the middle of the disabled parking area, then it was there again this morning.

Victor

**cough** Staff? **cough**

Pineapple stu

Sounds right victor. Next time someone sees this car there, go up to the ticket box and ask if its his. I tried to drive a transit van round that car park and the hassle of trying to get back out again. They are lucky its only clamping, i would remove any car parked in a stupid way.

elekid

After getting off the DART on the way home today I noticed that all of the cars parked on the path outside the Links in Portmarnock had a yellow and black envelope under the wipers with the words "Garda Siochana - Penalty Enclosed" written on them. Anyone know what that's about?

John R

elekid wrote:

After getting off the DART on the way home today I noticed that all of the cars parked on the path outside the Links in Portmarnock had a yellow and black envelope under the wipers with the words "Garda Siochana - Penalty Enclosed" written on them. Anyone know what that's about?

Parking fines. It is illegal to park on a footpath.

ixoy

elekid wrote:

After getting off the DART on the way home today I noticed that all of the cars parked on the path outside the Links in Portmarnock had a yellow and black envelope under the wipers with the words "Garda Siochana - Penalty Enclosed" written on them.

About time too - they're a hazard to anyone trying to walk that path in the morning.

Pineapple stu

Im delighted.:D