Graphic: Cork city sales hunters warned to park legally and avoid fines

If you’re heading to Cork City for the sales, you’re most likely to get caught for illegal parking in the South Mall and Connaught Avenue/Donovan’s Rd areas.

Following one of the busiest Christmas shopping periods in years, large crowds are expected to descend on the city for the sales, and should be aware that traffic wardens won’t be on holidays. According to figures released by Cork City Council, the South Mall was the big hotspot for traffic wardens issuing €40 parking tickets.

Out of a total of 6,071 fixed parking fines issued up until the end of October, 333 were slapped on vehicles in South Mall. Connaught Avenue/Donovan’s Rd accounted for 232.

South Mall is the busiest street in the city for parking, and just a stone’s throw from the parking wardens’ headquarters, at City Hall.

In third spot, on the illegal parking hitlist, came St Patrick’s Street, with 206 tickets issued, followed by Grand Parade (167) and MacCurtain Street (160.)

City council officials said that out of the 6,071 fines, 2,226 were for not displaying a valid parking disc.

A further 1,036 were issued to motorists for not having a current tax disc displayed.

Parking on double-yellow lines yielded 503 more fines, and vehicles found illegally parked in loading bays accounted for 436 tickets. An additional 287 fines were handed out for motorists who displayed a parking disc that wasn’t valid.

These were amongst the fines which city council officials outlined to those attending a recent meeting of the Cork City Joint Policing Committee (JPC) meeting in City Hall. Some local public representatives questioned if it was fair to hit people with a €40 fine for simply not having a ticket, whereas others caught in loading bays and parked in areas where they were obstructing traffic received similar fines.

Meanwhile, gardaí have warned shoppers about pick-pockets and not to leave valuables on show in their cars.