Registration index letters - why has Waterford two?

quenching

Can anyone tell me why Waterford has seperate registration letters for city and county, W for Waterford city and WD for Waterford county? It appears to be the only county that has this separation and I can't think why. I know Tipperary has North and South but they're really seen as separate counties by locals.

Was is just infighting amongst whoever set these index marks or is there a logical reason?

January

Limerick also, L for Limerick city and LK for Limerick county.

Wishbone Ash

quenching wrote: »

Was is just infighting amongst whoever set these index marks or is there a logical reason?

I think the authorities in each county had a choice prior to it's introduction in 1987. Some chose to have seperate letters while others used one.

bazz26

I think it had something to do with the way revenue from motor tax at the time was divided between the different councils.

I think they changed this system a few years ago though.

carchaeologist

It was always this way from 1903 when registration marks were first used in this country,Irish and english registrations were both under the motor car act 1903,covering the whole of the british isles.
This was repealed and replaced by the roads act 1920,and the road vehicles regulations 1921.Ireland then operated seperatley from britain but used the same system until 1987 when it was running out of letters,when the new system started in 87 each county just changed over to the new setup,and carried over most of the old version.
Cork had two in the old system(until 1985 when they were merged),cork city and county,
Dublin city and county were seperate until 1952 when both were merged,
Limerick city and county,Waterford city and county were seperate and also tipp north and south which are still the same now.
I dont know exactly why the cities were seperate,or why tipperary had/has a north and south riding,i would think it would have something to do with the british way of doing things at the time.
In the old days Offaly was called the kings county,and laois(laoighs as it was spelt) was called the queens county.
Hope this helps.

crosstownk

W=Waterford City; WD=county - as posted earlier, it's a similar set up in Limerick,

fricatus

Typical Irish inconsistencies again...

They should either have a system based on counties, so just W, L, D and so on, maybe TY for Tipp, or else a system based on local authority areas, so you'd keep W/WD, L/LK and TS/TN, and probably add a GY and CK.

Dublin has four local authorities, so you'd have a Fingal plate, a South Dublin plate, a Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown plate and a Dublin city plate.

McConkey

Been thinking about this lately....sad i know. I came to the conclusion that in the cities there were obviously more registered cars than in rural areas therefore before computers were available to keep track of all the data you would prob have had to search by hand through all the reg details. Therefore by seperating the counties with the most cars into two parts such as W and WD you could reduce the amount of searching that needed to be carried out.....but it's just a theory........the fact that computers were around in 1987 might upset my logic there tho

ninty9er

As said above it relates to Revenue and local authority classifications.

VH

fricatus wrote: »

and probably add a GY and CK.

I dont know about Cork but ironically county Galway is administered from an office in Galway City Council's area. otoh county Waterford is not administered from Waterford City Council's area - Waterford County Council's offices are in Dungarvan.

btw congratulations to waterford on their recent successes in the hurling and best wishes for sept 7.

zing

fricatus wrote: »

Dublin has four local authorities, so you'd have a Fingal plate, a South Dublin plate, a Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown plate and a Dublin city plate.

There have been rumours of these being introduced form sometime now. Think it was DR for Dun Laoghaire Rathdown, FL for Fingal and SN for South Dublin or something like that. So far no sign of them being introduced though.

milltown

McConkey wrote: »

Been thinking about this lately....sad i know. I came to the conclusion that in the cities there were obviously more registered cars than in rural areas therefore before computers were available to keep track of all the data you would prob have had to search by hand through all the reg details. Therefore by seperating the counties with the most cars into two parts such as W and WD you could reduce the amount of searching that needed to be carried out.....but it's just a theory........the fact that computers were around in 1987 might upset my logic there tho

But Dublin would have almost as many registrations as all the rest combined.

carchaeologist

McConkey wrote: »

Been thinking about this lately....sad i know. I came to the conclusion that in the cities there were obviously more registered cars than in rural areas therefore before computers were available to keep track of all the data you would prob have had to search by hand through all the reg details. Therefore by seperating the counties with the most cars into two parts such as W and WD you could reduce the amount of searching that needed to be carried out.....but it's just a theory........the fact that computers were around in 1987 might upset my logic there tho

I would say theres some truth in what you are saying,it makes sense:)

Run_to_da_hills

Dublin should have two. i.e one for each side of the Westlink

Orobhsa

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Dublin should have two. i.e one for each side of the Westlink

North and south of the Liffey! Maybe D1 and D2.

El Grifo

Orobhsa wrote: »

North and south of the Liffey! Maybe D1 and D2.

Would everyone be scrambling for a D4 reg then ? Incidentally although markedly different to our system, the French classification has, I believe only 2 designatory numbers for Paris, 75 and 92. With probably more vehicles than all of IRL is there any need therefore to expand the system we have. Hasn't it worked for over 20 years quite well.

Wishbone Ash

I live in the Fingal County Council area (i.e. North County Dublin for those unfamiliar with it) but my driving licence and motor tax etc. are issued by Dublin County Council!

McConkey

Yeah the whole....doing searches for car regs by hand thing was just something I went with at the time (was driving)....didn't know about the two administration areas in some counties splitting revenue....which makes perfect sense tbh.

As for Dublin, back in the day...prob not so many cars as now but a lot of roads to take care of (more than most). Inner city areas would have the greatest concentration of roads but few cars (70's 80's....big time recession = not much revenue) so maybe keeping all the revenue in a single office took care of a sizeable amount of paying for road upkeep (not upgrades obviously) for the whole county. Paying 4 different admin people to dole out money from each council would probably have eaten into the funds.

There are usually simple explainations for all these quirky things...but I can't stop coming up with theories.....(need help):rolleyes:;)

blastman

zing wrote: »

There have been rumours of these being introduced form sometime now. Think it was DR for Dun Laoghaire Rathdown, FL for Fingal and SN for South Dublin or something like that. So far no sign of them being introduced though.

And hopefully they won't be, stupid idea that smacks of trying to make work for public servants, IMO.

Victor

Its down to Waterford having two vehicle registration authorities.

McConkey wrote: »

Been thinking about this lately....sad i know. I came to the conclusion that in the cities there were obviously more registered cars than in rural areas therefore before computers were available to keep track of all the data you would prob have had to search by hand through all the reg details. Therefore by seperating the counties with the most cars into two parts such as W and WD you could reduce the amount of searching that needed to be carried out.....but it's just a theory........the fact that computers were around in 1987 might upset my logic there tho

Maybe they could have sorted them by number - maybe they would call this number a "registration number"?

Victor

El Grifo wrote: »

I believe only 2 designatory numbers for Paris, 75 and 92.

This are the département numbers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9partement_in_France

McConkey

Victor wrote: »

Its down to Waterford having two vehicle registration authorities.
Maybe they could have sorted them by number - maybe they would call this number a "registration number"?

Yeah fair enough....did repost later when I'd read the whole thread through and found out the actual reason....thanks for pointing it out again though!!