More pay parking woes as street spaces are not legal
New bye-laws can be challenged unless council begin major paint job on street parking spaces
SERIOUS concerns have again arisen about the legality of the Drogheda parking bye-laws - just days before councillors meet to vote on them.
The council are working towards the Drogheda Municipal District meeting of June 11 to have the byelaws ready for use - allowing 30 days from that night for them to be formally introduced.
With the various car parks easy enough to police and with many already marked, they should not have a problem.
But under the Road Traffic (Signs) Regulations, 1997 - as signed off by Brendan Howlin - there is a more pending issue with on street parking.
Duleek has already shown how things should be done - legally - with newly designed parking bays. The spaces are a certain size and they have a ‘ buffer zone’ between the spaces.
But what about the streets of Drogheda?
No such markings exist and here we are about to introduce new byelaws - basically for the first time - correctly.
The council can use various signs to indicate parking areas on the street, RRM 011, RRM 012, RRM 013 AND RRM 014.
RRM 012 seems to be the accepted one, like Duleek, and it requires the space to run between 2,100mm and 2,400mm from the edge of the kerb and to have a buffer zone between each one of 1,200mm and each space will be 4,800mm (that’s 15.7ft).
These regulations came into operation on 1st day of October, 1997.
They are the law - nationally - and therefore operate in Drogheda and all other towns where there is pay parking and disc parking.
It probably impacts more on Drogheda than any other place as they are basically bringing in bye laws - technically - for the first time this July.
The works in Duleek were carried out after Christmas when the whole street got a major markover. And the village does not even have pay parking!
Present Taoiseach Leo Varadkar updated some aspects of the Road Traffic Regulations in 2012 - but didn’t change the parking space dimensions.
Drogheda’s streets - at present - are not fit for purpose in relation to the required spaces and it will take a huge painting job by the council to have every street ready for July when the bye-laws should come into operation.
And the on street parking is not the only issue.
The various taxi ranks around town also need to be updated.
So, what are the regulations for a ‘proper’ taxi rank?
Well, it’s policed under RRM 029 and should ‘consist of the word “TAXIS” in white, once or more than once, accompanied by two end lines, being broken white lines approximately 100 millimetres wide, approximately 600 millimetres long and spaced 600 millimetres apart at right angles to the edge of the roadway and extending towards its centre to a maximum distance of 2.4 metres, and with broken white lines measuring approximately 600 millimetres long and 600 millimetres apart between the word “TAXIS” and each of the end lines.’
Maybe the council have already looked at all these issues and got agreement from the government department that they can go ahead with the street byelaws - without having the legal space markings and requirements.