Dominick Street: 15 minutes to get to the meter

Grace before parking – but none after

There is a 15-minute ‘grace’ period to allow motorists in Mullingar time to buy a ticket after parking – but there is no grace period after their parking ticket expires, members of the Mullingar Municipal District were informed at their October meeting.

Cllr Bill Collentine raised the issue, asking for clarification on whether there is a grace period before and after meter time on paid parking.
“Currently, there is a 15-minute grace period to allow people to get change to purchase a parking disc,” the written response stated.
“Can this not be put on the meter boxes?” he asked, stating that it would be useful for people to know they had time to pull up and go into a shop to buy a pint of milk or a newspaper.
Support came from Cllrs Ken Glynn, who said that a lot of the public don’t know about the grace period; and Andrew Duncan, with Cllr Emily Wallace opining that this should be advertised better.
Council official Declan Leonard said that the grace period was never intended to allow short visits to shops: the purpose was just to give people who found they had no change time to get money to buy a parking ticket.
Councillors were informed that the hand-held devices used by the parking wardens to register when a vehicle has parked don’t allow them to issue a ticket before 15 minutes have elapsed.