[Article] Dublin clampers told to go easy on city drivers

Victor

This is mostly poo.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2765-1378425,00.html

Dublin clampers told to go easy on city drivers

DUBLIN’s clampers have been told to lay off the capital’s motorists, writes Richard Oakley.

After six years of strict enforcement of parking laws, the city council has decided motorists deserve a break.

A change in clamping company has given officials the chance to scale back the draconian regime, which costs motorists €80 each time they are caught.

But it is not a case of Christmas coming early: the lighter touch will be applied only if motorists do not lapse into their non-paying bad habits.

According to an internal report drawn up for the city council’s traffic and transportation committee, compliance levels in pay-and-display parking in the city centre now average 89%. Prior to the introduction of clamping it was about 60%.

In response, clampers are being told to back off a little. “The overall level of parking enforcement activity is to be scaled back,” the report says.

Last month Control Plus lost the contract to provide clamping services in Dublin, which it had held since 1998. Park Rite is taking over. Control Plus had a reputation of being very strict. Motorists believed some clampers went out of their way to find illegally parked cars, even waiting at vehicles until their parking tickets expired in order to nab them.

The company became embroiled in a number of controversies, including the clamping of the lord mayor’s car as he emerged from a city council meeting. The council reprimanded Control Plus after seven of its cars hemmed in Nicky Potterton, an electrician whose jeep had been wrongly clamped on Middle Abbey Street.

In Galway, Control Plus employees refused to remove a clamp from a car outside a doctor’s clinic even though the owner needed to bring his son to hospital and had no money. A garda who arrived at the scene paid the fine.

The council says it was happy with Control Plus and “in general the clamping and removal service has been successful”. But the internal report acknowledges that “there have on occasions been unacceptable lapses in the quality of service delivered by Control Plus”.

The internal report was prepared by Paul McCarthy, the city council’s parking enforcement officer, who had publicly said “nobody should expect any change under the new regime”.

Conor Faughnan of the Automobile Association (AA) said the council is now recognising that motorists are obeying the laws, but he warned that car owners should not perceive it to be a relaxing of the rules.

BrianD

Am I correct in saying that the Control Plus employees will be transferred over to Park Rite. The clampers are former city council staff I believe. Let's hope they will be getting some custoner service training!

vinnyfitz

Its a pity the article does not actually explain what the phrase:

“The overall level of parking enforcement activity is to be scaled back,” the report says.

actually means.

Will grace periods be longer after metered payments expire?
Will soft targets like Fitzwilliam Square at 08.00 on a Saturday be downgraded?
Will patrols be less frequent in suburban residential streets?

Victor

I think there may be some refocusing against nuisance parking as opposed to pure just not paying the meter, but I wouldn't count on getting another few minutes out of the meter.

ParkRite are introducing various schemes including the ability to pay in certain 24hour shops, rather than at the pound / by credit card and notification of de-clamping by text message.

BrianD wrote:

Am I correct in saying that the Control Plus employees will be transferred over to Park Rite.

I understand staff under certain public procurement contracts do retain some rights when that contract goes to another provider. However, I don't know how many, if any, staff have moved.

BrianD wrote:

The clampers are former city council staff I believe.

Not aware of this. Many (not that there were that many) traffic wardens were given redundancy and I imagine few people went from ticketing to clamping. I'm not sure but I think wardens were employed by the garda, not the council - it was some sort of fuzzy relationship anyway.

BrianD wrote:

Let's hope they will be getting some custoner service training!

They are all being rotated through various courses.