Campers ignoring signs and parking up illegally
THE warning sign states quite clearly that overnight parking for camper vans is not permitted.
As you drive towards Rosses Point Beach next to the official Greenlands campsite the large council erected signpost reads: ‘No overnight Parking, CCTV in operation and ‘Vehicles will be clamped.’
But will they - be clamped? Highly unlikely. In fact according to the council no camper van has ever been clamped in Rosses Point for parking illegally. Or at any other coastal scenic spot across the county for that matter. So why bother putting up the signs at all if the bye-law can’t be enforced?
Director of Services for Sligo County Council Tom Kilfeather admits there is a problem but says the cash-strapped council doesn’t have the resources to fully address it at present.
“We are going to look at our parking byelaws for Enniscrone, Mullaghmore, Rosses Point and Strandhill again.
“There are bye-laws in place but enforcement is the problem. It is the job of the Gardai. Council staff cannot do it regularly as we have no resources to do that and the Gardai have other priorities.”
It seems relying on the public to take heed at least in some cases does not work.
As Rosses Point Caravan park visitor Martin Williams from Fermanagh pointed out in a letter to The Sligo Champion some people are just flouting the law and blatantly parking up for the night beside signs that explicitly tell you not to do so.
Independent Councillor Marie Casserly says the issue of illegal parking of campers in Mullaghmore has to some extent improved after the council put in new car parking bays with raised curbs, thus preventing campers parking parallel to the shore, which is what they had been doing.
This has not prevented some visitors from parking up overnight in the bays though, instead of using the dedicated campsite ‘Mermaid’s cove’ situated just outside the village.