City Hall urged to crack down on bad parking: 'It seems to be a free-for-all with cars in the city centre'

A TOTAL crackdown on illegal parking in the city, including traffic wardens patrolling at weekends, is needed to tackle a culture that has got out of control.

Green Party councillor Oliver Moran has called for a zero-tolerance policy on illegal parking and wants the council to classify the practice as anti-social behaviour.

He believes all instances of parking on double yellow lines, bus lanes, cycle lanes and footpaths detected by traffic wardens should result in fines.

Mr Moran has also suggested weekend traffic wardens could pay for themselves by generating revenue for the city council until a lax attitude toward parking is addressed.

He said this would also save the local authority money as there would be less damage to the public realm and footpaths by motorists parking on them.

“Damage to footpaths is not caused by people walking on them, it is caused by people parking on them. This includes the investment made by the council in creating beautiful public realms. They are only down a couple of months and they are damaged by cars.

“If the damage was caused by skateboarders, there would be a public outrage but because it’s cars, it’s regarded as normal.

“Having a zero-tolerance policy would just bring law and order to cars in the city centre.

“We have the Patrick Street ban but we don’t pay attention to everyday regular traffic offences.

“It seems to be a bit of a free-for-all with cars in the city centre. This isn’t about just cracking down on cars, it’s about making a more liveable city,” Mr Moran added.

The city council has issued 2,647 fines for parking in areas with no parking sign so far this year. It has issued 1,819 for parking after a permitted time and 2,647 for parking in a loading bay.

Mr Moran will bring a motion to the council’s road and transportation strategic policy committee on his zero-tolerance approach next month.