Limerick residents' fury at ‘deplorable’ parking fines

A GROUP of Limerick city residents – many of whom are elderly – have been left fuming after their cars were ticketed while parked outside their homes.

Locals in the Clare Street/Dublin Road area of the city have received fines of €80 – rising to €120 if unpaid in a month – from traffic wardens for leaving their cars on the pavement outside their homes.

But they say they’ve done this for decades without any penalty, and feel they are being unfairly targeted, with vehicles parked on pavements in estates across the city.

Local councillor Kieran O’Hanlon described the ticketing as “deplorable” and accused the local authority of “criminalising the elderly.”

“Where I am speaking about, people have parked for over 50 years outside their homes with adequate space for wheelchairs and people to walk,” he told this week’s metropolitan meeting.

“Go around the city any day. Go around any housing estates – Janesboro, Rathbane, Killalee, Garryowen. The vast majority of these areas, people park on the footpath. If all these cars were [parked] on the road, no-one would be able to pass.”

But senior engineer Hugh McGrath said he counted 65 cars parked illegally in the area and added the council had received public liability claims from people complaining of cracked footpaths brought about by vehicles on them.

The comments came after council said it would investigate employing more traffic wardens to police estates near University of Limerick.

Mr McGrath confirmed he had intervened to ask the wardens to attend the Clare Street area.

“As head of traffic, I can keep on driving past, or I can ask these wardens to go and do their job. I don’t think it’s fair to go out to the student areas and hammer them. We need to be consistent,” he said.

But Cllr O’Hanlon said wardens should be allowed to show “common sense” – or the authority should convert part of the pavement into parking spots.

Jimmy Kenny, who is in his mid-70s and was issued with a fine, said he was advised by a warden to park a quarter-of-a-mile away.

Asked how he felt on receiving the penalty, he said: “I was devastated. I was angry too. I’ve been parking there since 1974 when I got a car. I’ve never once had a ticket there before. I paid the fine, as I was afraid of it going up to €120. But it’s a third of my weekly pension. You know the way prices are now, and how foodstuffs have gone up, Myself and my wife are making the best of it. But then you get slapped with €80. Why are we singled out?”

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Helen Purcell, who works shifts in McDonalds added: “I was upset to get mine. I didn’t do anything wrong. I’m paying my mortgage and car tax.”

She appealed, but was unsuccessful.

“I should be entitled to park outside my front door. Everybody should be entitled to that,” Ms Purcell added.

She pointed out residents have in the past sought alternative parking solutions to avoid leaving their cars on the pavement.

They’ve unsuccessfully tried to rent parking spots at Musgrave’s, Limerick School of Art and Design and the old lemonade factory.