Not all parking appeals are ‘hardship’ cases - Director

A REQUEST to return parking ticket appeal facilities to the district councils was acknowledged by a Director of Services at the recent Wexford Borough District Council meeting.

Cllr George Lawlor raised the issue, saying he was aware of at least two cases where tickets issued were quashed but only after councillor representation.

In one case, a person, who had paid and placed a ticket on their car, got a fine while collecting medicine for a terminally ill family member. They appealed the fine but only received a response, saying the appeal had failed, shortly after said family member had passed away.

In another case, a business owner received a ticket for using a loading bay because their car was not a delivery vehicle. Cllr Lawlor pointed out that the vehicle did belong to the business owner who did not use a commercial van. He lamented the fact that the appeal system was far from straight-forward.

Director of Services Tony Larkin acknowledged the issue, saying that County Hall was currently trying to amalgamate five systems into one and that he would discuss the matter with the director for roads.

He pointed out that no one wanted to pay parking tickets and he had received them himself. He acknowledged that there were cases where appeals were warranted but said that not all complaints could be considered hardship cases.