Clamping appeal against DSPS - Small Claims Court

kilinick

Howdy,

Was clamped back in January and appealed through DSPS and surprise surprise, they didn't refund. The bay I was parked at had no signage. Pic attached..

DSPS completely ignored the fact that I argued about inadequate signage.

So I appeal to the NTA on the same basis. They take about 7 weeks to come back and they say:

 The nearest signage was located across the road from where this motorist was parked; and a parking meter was also located in this area.

So there was a sign across the road and this was some how relevant to the side I parked on. I think the NTA is supposed to be unbiased but it doesn't look it. As this argument is ridiculous.

Am looking into taking a small claims court against the DSPS. Thinking I should get a list of all the people who were clamped there as well as they have unlawfully been clamped.

Any advice going?

Ta

User1998

I think you’d need to check the statute book and find out if a parking sign on the opposite side of the street can apply to both sides of a street. If you can find a law that states that parking signs only apply to the side the sign is on then you may have a case

coylemj

Why do DSPS say you were clamped - Clearway? Non-payment? Expired ticket?

You're parked inside a white rectangle which looks like a regular 'pay and display' section of the street. There is often only one sign on one side of the street which gives the zone and times when you need to pay. If it's not a very long street, you wouldn't expect to see signs on both sides of the street, unless the two sides of the street are in different zones or have different times during which you need to pay for parking.

The rule in towns and cities is simple: any time you park in a white rectangle on a public street, you need to look for the signage and pay when appropriate. It's a pretty lame excuse to say that the sign was on the other side of the street. Did you seriously think that, in this day and age, there was free all-day parking outside an office block?

antodeco

OP, can you pop up the location on google maps please? Be interested to see the surrounding areas

hoodie6029

Plenty of streets where the meter is only on one side. If you’d gone over to the meter you’d have seen that payment was due.

There’s a few streets around Sandymount where there is parking adjacent to the train line but no sign on that side.

Parking Tag app or info on City Council website would’ve told you payment was required too.

You’re wasting your time appealing this further. You’ll just have to chalk this one up to experience I’m afraid OP.

coylemj

Parking Tag app or info on City Council website would’ve told you payment was required too.

In Dublin city, the only way you can determine if payment is due at a particular time of day is to check the sign on that street. The parking tag app and the Dublin city council website will tell you what colour zone you're in but neither of them will tell you the hours that apply for each street. There are streets in the city where one side is pay 24 hours and the other side is 7 a.m. - 7 p.m. or similar.

Calahonda52

OP, is the NCT done yet?

hoodie6029

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120321154#Comment_120321154

Ah feck! Is this that dreamer again? ‘Mechanic has my car 4 months’, ‘cousin won’t take penalty points he got in my car’ and loads of other threads in that vain from their imagination.

kilinick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120316998#Comment_120316998

Guessing you work for DSPS.. You wouldn't expect to see signs on both sides of the street... Jesus wept...

kilinick

Realise I wasted my time coming on here. Worse than twitter. Taking them to small claims court. All the councils bumpf shows that there needs to be signage...

zg3409

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120320968#Comment_120320968

The website is/was wrong on zone colours in the past. Even parts of the same side of the same street have different rules. Near Harcourt street about 4 spaces are pay after 7pm (with a sign) while the rest of the street is not. (With a sign) The clampers know exactly where the evening handy spots are, while other places are 24/7/365. Often one side of the street have different rules to the other side, it might be worth the fight if you like a challenge.

If the times I have been clamped in Dublin at least 50% were genuine misunderstanding the rules, such as clearway after 4pm.on one side only, part of street pay after 7pm but all the signs I saw were free after 7pm. In both cases I was wrong but not happy and appeals are a joke, I needed to post a letter if I remember.

hoodie6029

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120323376#Comment_120323376

Gotta be trolling at this point. Time to wrap this one up, I think.

OP, don’t let us know how you get on with your appeal.

LIGHTNING

Closing this thread. OP if you get a final outcome and you want to update us drop a mod a DM.