Number of parking fines issued in city increases by 8,000

CORK City Council issued 53,120 fixed charge penalties for on-street parking between August 2022 and July 2023.

The figure was revealed by Cork City Council chief executive Ann Doherty at the joint policing committee (JPC) meeting on Monday.

The number of fines issued represents an increase of over 8,000 on the previous 12-month period.

During both periods, most fines were issued on St Patrick’s Street and South Mall, with failure to display a valid disc, no current licence disc displayed, and parking in a loading bay or at a no-parking sign among the most common reasons for issuing tickets.

While no fines were issued for parking on or obstructing a cycle track between August 2021 and July last year, 64 fines were issued for this offence in the following 12 months.

Speaking at the JPC meeting, Ms Doherty said: “It hasn’t changed year-on-year in terms of the locations and the types of offences, but you can see there is an increase of offences being ticketed for parking on and obstructing a cycle track, which I know has been brought up on many occasions at this forum.”

Labour councillor for Cork City North-East, John Maher, said: “The figures are positive, but where we’re probably not capturing [these offences] is in the evenings.

“The city is being held up against the wall with illegal parking in the evenings.

“It’s happening everywhere — it’s happening on cycle lanes, it’s happening where we’ve spent millions on infrastructure.”

Mr Maher asked Ms Doherty whether any thought has been given to employing staff in the evenings and on weekends to tackle illegal parking.

He also highlighted the need for collaboration with An Garda Síochána to ensure that problem areas are tackled.

In response, Ms Doherty said: “The whole role of parking enforcement in Cork city has been around providing information and ensuring compliance with parking and traffic regulations in the city and optimising the use of parking. 

"Historically, it [parking enforcement] has been very much around business and business hours. There isn’t an active service after business hours and the gardaí would manage the illegal parking out-of-hours.

She added: “I think what you’re flagging, Cllr Maher, is that the city is changing and therefore, that is something that we need to look at but it would need to be looked at in the context of the budget.

“It is about funding it so we can have a wider service in place. I’ve no problem to do that, but obviously it is about having the available resources to do it.”