Just four parking tickets issued on streets near courthouse

The courthouse footpath before and after its €6000 repair job. The Irish Court Service has defended its parking arrangements in the area after it emerged just four tickets were issued in 2 years on Cross Street. 

The Irish Courts Service (ICS) has defended its parking arrangement next to Cork’s historic circuit courthouse steps as figures show just four parking tickets were issued in two years on the street nearby, where damage caused by persistent illegal parking on the pavement cost €6,000 to repairs.

Two tickets were issued on Cross St in 2018 and two in 2019, all for parking a vehicle wholly or partly on a footway, according to figures released by City Hall.

During the same period, 127 tickets were issued for parking offences on nearby Liberty St, which runs behind the courthouse — 44 tickets in 2018 and 83 in 2019. 

It comes just weeks after Cork City Council spent €6,000 to repair a section of pavement outside the courthouse on Washington St which, it said, was damaged by illegally parked cars over many years.

But, despite the persistent parking on footpaths, figures show low enforcement levels, with just 39 parking tickets issued since 2015 for a range of parking offences on Cross St, compared to 556 tickets issued on Liberty St during the same period. 

The figures for Cross St show that:

• 10 parking tickets were issued in 2017 — all for parking on footpaths;
• 11 of the 12 tickets issued in 2016 were for parking on the footpath;
• Nine of the 13 issued in 2015 were for parking on the footpath.

Since the pavement repairs were carried out, bike parking racks have been installed in a bid to deter illegal parking. 

However, parking continues on a small area of pavement alongside the courthouse steps, which can be accessed only by driving over the footpath.

A spokesperson for the Irish Courts Service (ICS) said this area of ground is within the curtilage of the courthouse and is owned by the ICS.

He said when the courthouse underwent significant refurbishment in 2001, the ICS indicated it would retain this portion of land to facilitate parking for those providing services to the ICS.

He said no more than three vehicles can park there at any one time.

And he insisted that separate parking arrangements are in place elsewhere for judges and courts service staff.

He said there should be no excuse for illegal parking on the streets nearby and that enforcement is a matter for the city council and gardaí.

Green Party councillor Dan Boyle urged the courts service to make public the details of this parking arrangement.

“If there is an arrangement, it has to be public and visible," he said.

"These arrangements must be publicly known. It is not acceptable for an arrangement to justify what is not deemed acceptable anywhere else in the city.” 

And he said it’s becoming more obvious to him that there seems to be a division of labour between the city council’s traffic department and the gardaí in respect of parking enforcement in and around the Washington St courthouse.

“It’s almost as if there’s an implied contract between both — that the city council focuses on disc parking issues and that the gardaí, when resources allow, ticket other parking offences — and that there is a reluctance on the part of one to intrude on the other. That compromises the city’s ability to maximise enforcement,” he said.