Galway Bay fm newsroom – Gardaí in Galway are considering returning to a system of issuing paper tickets for illegal parking.
At a meeting of the City Joint Policing Committee this week the issue was debated by members.
Mayor of Galway, Frank Fahy, who’s also a taxi driver, told the meeting that he sees numerous incidents of illegal parking in the city on a daily basis.
Councillor Donal Lyons says there is a consistent problem at Dr. Colohan Road where the yellow line needs to be extended as motorists have received fines when they thought they had parked correctly.
Chief Superintendent Tom Curley says gardaí are instructed to issue tickets for illegal parking in the city.
However, the ticket is now computer-generated and there is no physical ticket on the car.
He said they are considering going back to the old system of placing a ticket on a car, as it will be a visible warning for other motorists.
Superintendent Pat McHugh of Salthill Garda Division told the meeting that 251 tickets for parking offences have been issued in Salthill since January.
Councillor Colette Connolly requested that community wardens and gardaí liaise with schools on a regular basis to try and promote responsible parking outside schools at drop-off and pick-up times.
She added that the city is ‘held to ransom’ any time there is a match at Pearse Stadium in Salthill or at Terryland Stadium.
Councillor Connolly put forward a motion that a ‘zero tolerance’ approach be taken by the city council and gardaí towards illegal parking.
However this met with opposition from other members of the JPC who argued that a ‘zero tolerance’ approach is not always possible.
Chief Superintendent Curley said that he would need at least 1 thousand gardaí to enforce a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to illegal parking.
Councillor Connolly changed her motion to request that a ‘more pro-active’ approach to illegal parking be taken, which was agreed.
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