County councillors await council management decision on private parking operator in Mallow

County councillors who want to take control of parking away from a private company will have to wait until December 16 to see if council management will veto their proposal.

Mallow is the only town in Co Cork which has its parking regulated by a private operator.

A number of councillors representing the area claim this is too costly and they also claim the private operator is overzealous in handing out tickets.

At a county council meeting James Kennedy proposed that the council take back the enforcement of parking in Mallow from the private contractor, whose contract is shortly up for renewal.

Cllr Kennedy said figures he'd obtained from Deputy Sean Sherlock showed the private contractor, Apoca, had earned €1.4m from the council contract since 2014.

He said that all other towns with pay parking had it enforced by council-employed staff and this should be the same in Mallow.

"I propose that this council would move to ensure that each municipal district would run and control its own pay parking operation and would cease, as soon as is practicable, to rely on private operators for the collection of parking fees and the levying of fines," Cllr Kennedy said.

He described the amount of money earned by Apoca as "colossal," adding that it would be better in council coffers than that of a private company.

"When I was in the (now defunct) town council we had to call them in because they were overzealous. We want Mallow on the same (level) playing field as the rest of our towns," Cllr Kennedy said.

"We need to streamline the system. Hopefully we can bring back our own parking attendant," Cllr Pat Hayes said.

Cllr Gearoid Murphy said there was cross-party support for parking to be reviewed and it taken in-house.

Cllr Seamus McGrath said that the same private company once ran parking enforcement in Douglas and said described their approach as "excessive."

Other councillors from outside the Mallow area also said that parking enforcement should only be run by council-employed wardens.

Cobh-based Cllr Cathal Rasmussen said there was pay parking in his hometown and it was run very efficiently by a county council traffic warden.

While there are a number of towns with pay parking, none of them are in West Cork and councillors in that region have reiterated they will not tolerate its introduction.

Cllr Paul Hayes pointed out that some years ago council official tried to introduce it in the region and councillors "fiercely resisted it."

It was agreed to refer the Mallow pay parking issue to a meeting of the Kanturk/Mallow Municipal District Council which will take place on Dec 16.