Parking in St Patricks Mills in Douglas

mini1972

The other half and myself went for a few drinks last night in the village.Lovely.Parked the car at about 10pm in the mills outside Bettys!:)knowing that it not open this morning it being the BH.
Went back for the car today at 12.30pm and bloody clamp on the car!
Nice man came to take clamp off the car and 120euro off of me and said its private property outside business hours so can't park there!:mad:

Going to appeal it because there was no where telling us that we couldnt park there or that it was private property.

Anyone want to tell me am I right?

Owen

APCOA have signs affixed to all the fences in there warning of clamping.

Ludo

Nope wrong. Clamping signs all over the place. Never leave car over night there.

mini1972

Yes but what it says is that there is 1 hour customer parking.That would infer that they will clamp when the business is open if you are there longer than an hour.It says nothing about when business is closed.

To me It would infer that if the business is closed you can't be a customer so have no parking there.

Padraig Mor

That place is notorious for clamping, at all hours.

Milly33

they are little ****s...Really make it hard to actually try and be good, leaving the car over night. It happened to my cousin also at the weekend, and she was back to the car early the next day so it wasnt like she was leaving it all day again there.Had it happen to myself ages ago in the east village when they started clamping there but they had the signs why above where you would see them driving in but anywho..

I would appeal and tell them to Feck off and stop being muppets.

gbee

Seems pretty clear, neither the commercial community nor the county officials want you or anyone in douglas at all ever again.

Majesticzebras

Was there today....spotted 2 wardens.
One was writing a ticket:(

Just wonder if anyone knows if you have to pay for parking when going for a coffee in 'The Pigs Back' there? Would really hate if this scheme affected their business....must be difficult enough at the moment.

mini1972

mini1972 wrote: »

............
Nice man came to take clamp off the car and 120euro off of me and said its private property outside business hours so can't park there!:mad:............

Milly33 wrote: »

..........

I would appeal and tell them to Feck off and stop being muppets.

Bit late for that now, they have the cash

Sergio

Just bumping up this thread after my brothers car got clamped over the weekend. He parked his car in the woolen mills at about 1100pm last sat nite as they were going to johnos for a few drinks and when he went back the next morning his car was clamped.Its an absolute disgrace in my opinion especially at the weekends when the businesses in there are closed anyway on a sunday.
He wont be paying the fine anyway but will get the clamp off his car thats for sure!

Bill-e

Ya my brother had his 30th in South County a few weeks back. Loads of relations and friends came from all over to celebrate with him. A good few of them parked in the Mills not knowing about these clampers. We dropped them all out to their cars in the morning to find that they had all been clamped. Pretty crappy ending to a great weekend like. :rolleyes:

Ludo

Out of curiosity, what time on the Sunday did people go back for their cars at?

Sergio

I think my brother went down about 12 midday and it was clamped since 10am i think.

Sergio

Just to let you know my brother got the clamp off his wheel last night with out causing any damage.He just had it off and the clampers turned up. All the guy said to him was "You have it off,il get someone to come pickup the clamp". They cannot do anything if you manage to take it off yourself.My brother in fairness was cute as he didnt cause any damage to the clamp itself. They can bring you to court for damaging their property.
Its €120 euro per day if you leave your car there clamped.

Janedoe10

Good wan . Was out for a bite To eat last night and it's impossible to even get a space for parking . Wonder if u left car in the cinema car park is it the same as pats woolen mills would they clamp same way there too ... There are more parking meters now in Douglas considering how small it compared to city centre .

Karmella

I was in the South County recently for lunch (parked in Tesco) and they had (tiny) signs up in the door saying where you could park, where you had to pay and so on. I don't remember the exact details though I'm afraid . I think the plan is to bring in pay & display parking all over douglas i.e. in the woolen mills, the cinema and over by the east village aswell. I have seen the pay & display machines over by east village but not sure if its been enforced yet. I think on the sign in the south county they said there was an overnight charge (like 5 euro or so?).

kub

Janedoe10 wrote: »

Good wan . Was out for a bite To eat last night and it's impossible to even get a space for parking . Wonder if u left car in the cinema car park is it the same as pats woolen mills would they clamp same way there too ... There are more parking meters now in Douglas considering how small it compared to city centre .

Forget about the cinema car park, Apcoa control there as well. Even if you are attending the cinema, you have to park at the back, then go in, get your ticket and a ticket for the car, return back to the said car and put it on display.
I think there is a motion in County Hall at the moment they are considering changing the name of Douglas to Apcoaland.

gbee

kub wrote: »

of Douglas to Apcoaland.

Or more like EastVillApcoaland

gbee

On the same thought pattern, wasn't a developer given the bums rush on the last two years when he wanted to build a skyscraper shopping centre in Douglas Village along with a flyover, bridge to link to the second skyscraper shopping centre in Douglas Court and multi-storey car park.

kub

gbee wrote: »

On the same thought pattern, wasn't a developer given the bums rush on the last two years when he wanted to build a skyscraper shopping centre in Douglas Village along with a flyover, bridge to link to the second skyscraper shopping centre in Douglas Court and multi-storey car park.

That is correct, there was a plan by a certain developer (now in NAMA), to connect the two shopping centres with some sort of a light rail which would run parallel with the link road.
On another subject, has anyone noticed the steel colums rising up from the surface on the top floor level in the Douglas Shopping Centre muti storey. Obviously someone is thinking ahead, me thinks the residents around them will have another battle on their hands, whenever the economy recovers that is.

murphym7

Have noticed over the past couple of weeks that the Douglas shopping centre car park has got very busy since the new parking regualtions came in. I was there on Froday specifically, and the whole 2nd level was full, didnt even see that at Christmas. I wonder what plans the shopping centre have in store to tackle non customer parking - validated parking in the shops maybe?

Can't see them bringing in pay parking though, it would really affect business - when you can go to Mahon, Wilton, Douglas Court, Bishopstown etc etc..... for free.

gbee

murphym7 wrote: »

Can't see them bringing in pay parking though, .

Pay Parking was in the original plan. I gave them a piece of my mind during the open days and told them I was lodging an objection.

I'm sure it's all part of a plan an we'll find the brown envelopes in time.

I'd not be too worried about the people parking in the centre, they would all be shoppers at one time or another, they have good monitoring there already for the three hours and they can target the individual offenders ~ which btw, is what Council should have done, instead of punishing everybody for crimes they never commit.

bladebrew

murphym7 wrote: »

Have noticed over the past couple of weeks that the Douglas shopping centre car park has got very busy since the new parking regualtions came in. I was there on Froday specifically, and the whole 2nd level was full

I was in there friday evening at about 7:45 heading to m&s and was wondering why i couldnt get parked anywhere near the lifts even though everywhere was closed:)
I didnt cop it until i read this post:o

Ludo

murphym7 wrote: »

Have noticed over the past couple of weeks that the Douglas shopping centre car park has got very busy since the new parking regualtions came in. I was there on Froday specifically, and the whole 2nd level was full, didnt even see that at Christmas. I wonder what plans the shopping centre have in store to tackle non customer parking - validated parking in the shops maybe?

Surely it is easy for them to tackle it. The lights over the parking bays indicate which cars have been there too long already and can be clamped immediately.

bladebrew

I cant see them bringing in pay parking though it would leave people with no option but to stay away from douglas,
the parking is a mess though, i have seen people get out of their cars in mc donalds car park and walk across to east village while other people are looking for spaces to actually go into mc donalds,
i have been the only customer in select and had to abandon my car beside the carwash on the yellow hatching because every space was full:eek:

my other half every now and again suggests we go for dinner in east village which is met with a no everytime, as i once spent 15 minute driving in circles finding a spot (while being told to park in mc donalds:mad:) then eventually parking in that muddy corner between east village and mc donalds and then getting a bit of stick because its too muddy:rolleyes:
so without the douglas shopping centre we are fecked, if they bring in pay parking il go to mahon for my beer and fast food needs!

murphym7

Ludo wrote: »

Surely it is easy for them to tackle it. The lights over the parking bays indicate which cars have been there too long already and can be clamped immediately.

I am not talking about people parking there for more than 3 hours, that has obviously been managed easily by them since they opened - I am talking about non customers of the centre using the free parking while they go somewhere else - ie Eco's for dinner etc....

I can't imagine that its a coeincidence that the shopping centre parking got busier at the same time that pay parking was introduced in the village.

ofcork

People are constantly parking in mcdonalds and heading off,saw it myself monday night and other times i have been looking for a space there to eat there and the same story.i wonder are ncps or mcdonalds themselves aware of this?

hoodwinked

murphym7 wrote: »

Have noticed over the past couple of weeks that the Douglas shopping centre car park has got very busy since the new parking regualtions came in. I was there on Friday specifically, and the whole 2nd level was full, didnt even see that at Christmas. for free.

You now have all the staff parking in there also, they usen't be allowed and used have to park around douglas or in that carpark in the mills, now they park on level 3 i think!

Friday is always manic in there as it is pension day and being the only post office for all of douglas's pensioners they all do their shopping there on Fridays!

ofcork wrote: »

People are constantly parking in mcdonalds and heading off,saw it myself monday night and other times i have been looking for a space there to eat there and the same story.i wonder are ncps or mcdonalds themselves aware of this?

i saw them clamping recently in there so i'd say they are!

kub

i saw them clamping recently in there so i'd say they are![/QUOTE]


Its not too often I say this but, that is what I would describe as positive clamping.

South County

We've had to deal with the threat of Clampers for the last couple of years in Douglas village , mainly in St. Patrick's Woolen mills. Now since the 1st May, Cork Co. council have opened a new Public Car Park at the rear of St. Patricks Woolen Mills. Not many people know about this but I've been assured that there will be an information booklet about parking options in Douglas distributed by Cork Co.co. in the next couple of weeks.:)
Parking in this new Car park is well lit at night has CCTV and is Free between the hours of 6.30pm and 8.30am so you can go for dinner or a couple of drinks and pick the car up in the morning. During business hours there is a charge of €3 for 24 hours. This is'nt the complete answer to the parking problem in Douglas but I know many of our customers at the South County are happy not to have to risk getting clamped again.
Meanwhile street parking is now 'pay & display' all over the village and is 80c an hour during business hours (again free after 6.30pm). You can also put 20c in the meter and get 15 minutes which is handy to know.....