Clamping collects €4.5m in Dublin

DUBLIN City Council took in over €4.5 million in fines last year thanks to the clamping of vehicles.

Figures for 2006 show that a total of 51,705 vehicles were clamped, while a further 5,604 vehicles were “relocated”, before being clamped as they were impeding traffic — a total of 57,309 vehicles.

At €80 per vehicle clamped, the total paid out in fines hit €4,584,720, providing a sizeable boost to the council’s coffers.

The local authority said yesterday that there were no outstanding fines from last year, meaning that the fine was paid in all cases.

However, 187 vehicles that had been essentially abandoned in the local authority area and were never reclaimed were crushed last year.

The revenue generated from clamping last year is up on the €3.9m taken in during 2005. However, it is still less than the €5.3m taken in during 2003.

The council subsequently received complaints that clampers were over-zealous in their approach.

Earlier this month, Fianna Fáil Cllr Chris Andrews said he would put forward a motion at the council’s next meeting that clamping and parking fines should only be used when more than 70% of the car parking spaces in an area are occupied.

The new figures for Dublin City Council come in the same week that the Chamber of Commerce in another local authority in the capital, Dun Laoghaire- Rathdown, said it would oppose the introduction of car clamping on streets and public parking spaces in the area.

The county manager in the area, Owen Keegan, has outlined plans to introduce clamping in Dun Laoghaire- Rathdown.

Clamping was to have been introduced from Monday, January 8 of this year, but opposition at county council level has seen it delayed until early February.

Mr Keegan had announced that he intended to introduce clamping only for illegally parked vehicles which have three or more outstanding fines, and that the new measures would be introduced through a number of bylaws which he has enacted.

The move prompted criticism from council members who claimed they had been bypassed in the process.

Fianna Fáil and Labour councillors have joined forces in their bid to reverse the decision.