Clampers ‘sending out wrong message’
LOCAL business owners who are clamping visitors to the town are ‘sending out the wrong message,’ said Cllr Paddy Kavanagh at last week’s Enniscorthy Municpal District Council meeting.
Cllr Kavanagh informed the members that he had been contacted by people who were visiting the town and stopped in for lunch at The Bailey. They returned to find their car clamped and when they approached the business owners about this, claim that they were informed that it was an act carried out by the council.
‘ To say that it is the council is wrong. We all know that the council don’t clamp,’ he said, ‘Some member needs to approach them (the business) and tell them that we don’t want our name being associated with this.’
Cllr Kavanagh said the visitors in question are unlikely to return to the town after the incident, which cost them €120.
‘If business people are clamping visitors to our town, they are sending out the wrong message,’ he said.
Speaking with this newspaper yesterday, Group Manager of The Bailey/ Woodford Dolmen Hotel Colin Duggan said that nobody in their business ever stated that the council were responsible for the clamping action.
‘ The councillor was misinformed. Why would we say the carpark belongs to the council when we pay rates to the council for it?’ he said. ‘ The situation is that National Car Parks manage the carpark.’
According to Mr Duggan, the current paid parking system was introduced 11 months ago to deter non-customers from parking outside of the business for the day. However, he said that customers are given plenty of notice about the payment terms before they enter the building. ‘ We have 17 different signs around the car- park, on the menus and on every door asking people to pay for their parking before they take a seat. When they leave, we will refund them what they paid,’ he said. ‘ The priority is to make sure that our customers have parking. We had a situation last December when nobody could get a spot.’
Mr Duggan said that there have been a few incidences of people getting clamped in the car park over time, saying that it is likely that they just did not read the signs. When asked his opinion on whether the rules were ‘sending out the wrong message’ to visitors to the town, he did not agree.
‘I wonder why (the councillors) would say that when there is enforcement all around Enniscorthy with regard to parking. As for whether it deters visitors to the Bailey itself, we give money back to the customer to pay for their parking,’ he said.