Motorists heed warnings about illegal parking on the first day of car clamping in Dublin city centre.
The first victim of Dublin Corporation's get tough attitude to illegal parking is the owner of a Nissan Micra is clamped in Merrion Square for not displaying a ticket from the pay and display machine. From today motorists will have to pay £65 to have their vehicles declamped.
Dublin Corporation has awarded Control Plus the three year contract for the clamping service. They employ two spotters on motorbikes patrolling the streets for illegally parked cars. The spotter places a yellow sticker on the illegally parked car and notifies the clamping van which arrives between two and twenty minutes.
Although warnings had been in place, Frank Crowley, of the city's traffic office explains the introduction of clamping has seen a dramatic reduction in illegal parking, from 50 percent to 5-6 percent.
Although a success, some motorists question the wisdom clamping cars that are not obstructing the traffic flow. According to one motorist, a car parked in a bay with an expired parking ticket,
That’s not causing havoc to anybody else on the road, that’s an easy target.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 10 August 1998. The reporter is Margaret Ward.
