Published: Wednesday, 3rd February, 2010 5:00pm

'Clamp down on illegal parking' Gardaí told

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Gardaí seem to have "abdicated responsibility" for stopping members of the public from parking illegally in Mullingar bus bays, Labour's Cllr. Pat Collins told last week's meeting of Mullingar Town Council.

Cllr. Collins condemned the practice where motorists insist on parking in bays reserved as set-down areas for buses, particularly on Fridays and Saturdays, at Castle Street and Austin Friars' Street.

He said that "motorists with a severe lack of brain cells" were responsible for the problem.

"Only last Friday, there was a hold-up in the middle of the town where people had parked in bus bays," Cllr. Collins said. "People had to go out on the public road to get on to the bus.

"There must be a health and safety issue there.

"But Gardaí were driving by at the time, saw what has happening, but didn't stop to ticket the drivers responsible."

He said that it was impossible for traffic wardens employed by Westmeath County Council to be everywhere at the same time, unless they were "given ten-speed racers".

"CCTV should be used to monitor this," the Labour man added. "And we should consider towing away cars who do this, so they have to pay €500 to get their car back."

Cllr. Collins also suggested a system where Bus Éireann drivers could contact Gardaí to notify them about people parked in bus bays.

Fianna Fáil's Cllr. Ken Glynn said that there was a "culture of illegal parking" in Mullingar which had to be broken, before it resulted in "fatalities".

He said that the situation was similar outside schools in the town.

George Lambden, Westmeath County Council's Mullingar Area Director of Services, said that he would write to Gardaí about the matter, with a view to discussing it at a future Joint Policing Committee meeting.

Mr. Lambden added that traffic wardens will "regularly monitor the situation", with a view to issuing parking fines to offending motorists.