Unhappy campers: Crackdown on campervans hogging spots in Cobh

New bylaws are set to be introduced to stop people from overstaying their welcome at the campervan site in Cobh, Co Cork, situated on edge of Cork Harbour. Picture: Dan Linehan
There may be unhappy campers this summer as a crackdown is being proposed on people ‘hogging’ campervan facilities at the country’s most successful council-run site.
New bylaws are set to be introduced to stop people from overstaying their welcome at the campervan site in Cobh, Co Cork, situated on the edge of Cork Harbour.
There are currently signs at the ‘Five Foot Way’ advising vehicle owners that a 48-hour stay is the maximum allowed but the time limits have never been enforced.
Parking wardens are checking the area but are powerless to stop vehicle owners from leaving for a few minutes and coming back again.
This is regularly leading to people hogging spaces for days on end, leaving new arrivals to seek another venue, more often than not away from the town.
Páraig Lynch, the senior executive officer for the region, told councillors that new draft bylaws would be published before the end of the month.
They will then go out for public consultation for a six-week period before councillors decide to enshrine them in law.
Mr Lynch said the proposed measures will “cut out” the ‘run around the corner then come back issue’. If passed by councillors, a new bylaw will be introduced which prohibits such vehicles from returning to the designated serviced parking spaces for a further 72 hours after the maximum 48-hour slot has been exceeded.
Mr Lynch said at present the maximum 48-hour limit is impossible to enforce because legislation isn’t in place to back it up.
“Trouble is they leave, go around the corner and then come back five minutes later,” he said.
There is a €10 charge per 24 hours but no way of telling when the vehicles arrive.
Mr Lynch said the proposed bylaw change will require vehicle owners to get a ticket which shows the exact time they arrive, which will aid parking wardens in detecting rule breaches.
The council is making a lot of money from the facility that it opened in 2017 and wants to maximise profits there.
The spaces prove very popular even during the winter months, but as the height of the tourism season beckons, they’re likely to become crammed.
Fine Gael councillor Sinead Sheppard advised some caution, saying a 48-hour limit might be too restrictive, but said she’d await the results of the public consultation process before making her mind up.
Fine Gael councillor Anthony Barry said the site has “been a fantastic success” and maintained that it’s financially prudent to seek better turnover rates in the future.