Fury as people in Mallow hit with tickets despite parking machines not working
Of Of Order A Generic Denis Pay Machine picture An Image Out Minihane Parking
There was uproar in Mallow in recent days after people were hit with parking tickets despite new parking machines not being operable.
Signs outlining the new charges and maximum stay times had also not been installed.
Councillors representing the area have reacted with fury, with one claiming if people gave him their tickets that he would pass them onto officials and demand they be torn up on the spot.
Parking charges were reintroduced in Mallow last Friday morning after they had been removed for nearly two years in an effort to attract shoppers into the town during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Around a month ago, councillors met with their officials and decided to reintroduce the charges with some alterations in different parts of the town on the amounts payable and the maximum length of stay.
They were informed that the private company which operates the machines would have them up and running last Friday. Councillors also received assurances that new signage would be erected to make it clear to people that pay parking had been reintroduced. However, this wasn’t done.
On the very same day, councillors representing the Kanturk/Mallow Municipal District held their monthly meeting with many saying they had received numerous phone calls from irate motorists who had been ticketed.
Fine Gael councillor Tony O’Shea said.
“I’m astonished this has happened and I’m getting phone calls about it,” Fine Gael councillor Liam Madden said.
Fianna Fáil councillor Pay Hayes said he had been contacted by one angry motorist who had been ticketed and told him it would be the last time he shopped in Mallow.
“It’s a pity this has happened,” Labour councillor James Kennedy said, while Fianna Fáil councillor Gearoid Murphy also expressed disappointment and called for it to be rectified as a matter of urgency.
Councillors say they are concerned about the reputational damage it could do to Cork towns and the potential that shoppers would turn their back on local businesses in favour of shopping centres with free parking.
Council officials said the company in charge of the machines had been given plenty of notice to reactivate them.
The people who got a ticket could lodge an appeal, they said.
“That’s not good enough. If somebody comes to me with a fine until this is rectified, I will be giving it straight to the municipal district office and I’d expect it to be torn up,” Mr O’Shea said.
“People shouldn’t have to appeal, they should be just automatically cancelled,” Mr Madden said.
The machines have since been activated and the new signage has been erected around the town too.
Mr O’Shea said he’d be insisting that anybody who was fined between last Friday and then should have their ticket cancelled.