Don't clamp my ride...

The knives were out. They were looking for blood at last night's meeting in Dún Laoghaire. Don McManus, Robert Doyle and Breasal Ó Caollaí from the Business Association had organised the room, and there was a good turn-out of around fifty people. We all agreed that the last thing anyone wants is 'Welcome to Dún Laoghaire - Beware of the Clampers" signs going up.

What people do want though is for the confusion between the Council and the Courts to be cleared up. There must be a lot of egg on somebody's face.

We also need a decent traffic plan for the town. Everybody wants decent signs put up so people know where the parking is. How about 'early-bird' parking for free before 11 in the morning? Maybe a bit of integration between the motor tax office and parking fines section so that you can't pay your annual car tax unless you've paid any outstand ing fines? If you can pay for parking online then it must be possible.We seem to be stuck with Byzantine legislation that gives us three different types of ticket issuer ranging from Guards to the Council traffic wardens to the 'blue bottles'. What we do know is that 347 people have 685,000 tickets between them, and the Council has only brought a fraction of these fines to court. Perhaps the Irish Parking Association has a view on this?

Maybe a tow-away service is the best solution, although somebody did whisper in my ear that car-crushing might be the best approach for the seriously recidivist offenders!