Increased parking charges in city council car parks

jmpd22

Parking in Galway is a joke. Not only is it impossible to find on a busy day unless you secure your spot first thing in the morning, it is also expenisve. In a multi story car park, you can expect to pay a daily rate of up €20 for the privilage of a tiny spot for your car.

The city council have a few open air car parks around the city. Open air, meaning no security. Their machines only accept coins, no notes, and you can expect to wait about 10 minutes if you need to pay by card, as the machine will lose the connection and fail at least twice before it will take payment from you. On other days, the machines do not work at all and after tryng each one, you end up having to find a pen and paper to leave a note on your windscreen and you have to ring the council to get practially told off (I was told that it will be noted 'THIS TIME' but my reg will be on record). What do we pay for this privelage of non working manchines, no security car parking? €4 a day..oh wait, no. On Tuesday 23rd January 2018, users of the car parks, arrived to the fee being changed increased to €5, with absolutely no notice other than a small sticker on the payment machine.

What do we get for our extra one euro? The machines now work? No. There is security in the car park? Nope. You can be guarenteed that you won't break your neck on a frosty morning because it's well gritted by the council? Nope.

Nothing, we receive nothing extra for the extortionate €5 charge that the Galway City Council feel it is now appropriate to charge.

I think they shouldn't be allowed to get away this sneaky price increase and someone needs to be answerable for the way it has been implemented.

holygoaliefc

jmpd22 wrote: »

Parking in Galway is a joke. Not only is it impossible to find on a busy day unless you secure your spot first thing in the morning, it is also expenisve. In a multi story car park, you can expect to pay a daily rate of up €20 for the privilage of a tiny spot for your car.

The city council have a few open air car parks around the city. Open air, meaning no security. Their machines only accept coins, no notes, and you can expect to wait about 10 minutes if you need to pay by card, as the machine will lose the connection and fail at least twice before it will take payment from you. On other days, the machines do not work at all and after tryng each one, you end up having to find a pen and paper to leave a note on your windscreen and you have to ring the council to get practially told off (I was told that it will be noted 'THIS TIME' but my reg will be on record). What do we pay for this privelage of non working manchines, no security car parking? €4 a day..oh wait, no. On Tuesday 23rd January 2018, users of the car parks, arrived to the fee being changed increased to €5, with absolutely no notice other than a small sticker on the payment machine.

What do we get for our extra one euro? The machines now work? No. There is security in the car park? Nope. You can be guarenteed that you won't break your neck on a frosty morning because it's well gritted by the council? Nope.

Nothing, we receive nothing extra for the extortionate €5 charge that the Galway City Council feel it is now appropriate to charge.

I think they shouldn't be allowed to get away this sneaky price increase and someone needs to be answerable for the way it has been implemented.

€5 for 24 hours of parking...so less than 21c an hour...to be fair, I'd say you get exactly what you pay for

phelant

holygoaliefc wrote: »

€5 for 24 hours of parking...so less than 21c an hour...to be fair, I'd say you get exactly what you pay for

Unless you are in Mill St. and put a little black book under your ticket!

holygoaliefc

holygoaliefc wrote: »

€5 for 24 hours of parking...so less than 21c an hour...to be fair, I'd say you get exactly what you pay for

Allow people to pay it 2.50 for 12 hours so (or it would be 2 euro before the needless and totally unfaair increase to 5 for 24hrs). 24hrs parking is meaningless for most people who need to park for the duration of work. 25 euro a week is a lot of your wages gone for the necessity that is parking for work.

OP, look into the private companies if you can find a suitable car park. for example at the docks you can get an annual parking space 7 days a week for 600 euro (only 50 euro a month) which is less than half the 5 day council rate and you have the advantage of using it at weekends, leving the car for more than 24 hrs etc.

jmpd22

Saylor Sharp Maroon wrote: »

Allow people to pay it 2.50 for 12 hours so (or it would be 2 euro before the needless and totally unfaair increase to 5 for 24hrs). 24hrs parking is meaningless for most people who need to park for the duration of work. 25 euro a week is a lot of your wages gone for the necessity that is parking for work.

Yes exactly my view. When you are parking there every day for work, you never need "24 hour" parking. Half day options should definitely be an option, as I am sure that the majority of people that park there, never park there for more than 8 hours a day. The €1 increase is just to line pockets in the city council and is in no way going to benefit anyone who are forced to pay out an extra €5 to €7 an hour a week from form their pay-packet. They have also introduced parking fees for Sundays, which was never the case previously. This was covered in the local media, but conveniently the increase to €5 was not advertised, even in the car park itself!

Mrs OBumble

Where are you travelling in from, OP?

Gal44

Totally agree. The two car parks i use that have gone up to 5 euro are a joke, the machines are always faulty, either don't work or they take your money and don't give you a ticket... on the times that they don't work you are advised to ring them with your reg and leave a note, this is fine but you could still get fined for not having a ticket displayed! and then you have to chase them trying to prove you called/left a note. Its crazy. After a two hour commute to Galway city its a pain to queue for a faulty machine and then have the risk of your car been damaged for lack of security. Myself and co workers have had our cars damaged or things stolen from the cars.

Mr_A

€5 a day seems pretty reasonable to me. Certainly not extortionate.

Wasn't it €5 previously and reduced during the recession?

There is certainly an argument that the council is too dependent on income from car parks and this might influence them towards pro-car policies. Although I suspect that might have been the default in any case.

ratracer

This could be just a mad conspiracy, but.... I reckon the council are increasing parking charges to try discourage all day parking and consequently ease the rush hour gridlock the city faces on a daily basis.
Not a bad idea if only they first implement a park and ride along each of the main arteries into town.

amcalester

ratracer wrote: »

This could be just a mad conspiracy, but.... I reckon the council are increasing parking charges to try discourage all day parking and consequently ease the rush hour gridlock the city faces on a daily basis.
Not a bad idea if only they first implement a park and ride along each of the main arteries into town.

This was my first thought too reading the OP.

xckjoo

ratracer wrote: »

This could be just a mad conspiracy, but.... I reckon the council are increasing parking charges to try discourage all day parking and consequently ease the rush hour gridlock the city faces on a daily basis.
Not a bad idea if only they first implement a park and ride along each of the main arteries into town.

If it was somewhere else I'd say you were right but GCC love their parking income

This is just the beginning of the plans to encourage people to move from private cars to other means of transport (bus, cycle, walk, park and ride etc)

Expect the price of parking in the council car parks to go a lot higher in coming years or for all day parking to be done aways with.

jjpep

[Deleted User] wrote: »

This is just the beginning of the plans to encourage people to move from private cars to other means of transport (bus, cycle, walk, park and ride etc)

Expect the price of parking in the council car parks to go a lot higher in coming years or for all day parking to be done aways with.

I suspect you're right. What they need to do is to start improving those other options at the same time. I cycle to work nearly every day. The infrastructure for this though is pretty poor and is the main thing discouraging more people from trying this as opposed to driving.

xckjoo

jjpep wrote: »

I suspect you're right. What they need to do is to start improving those other options at the same time. I cycle to work nearly every day. The infrastructure for this though is pretty poor and is the main thing discouraging more people from trying this as opposed to driving.

It's a bit of a chicken and egg situation. They need road space to improve cycling and bus infrastructure.

jmpd22

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Where are you travelling in from, OP?

I travel in from passed Monivea everyday for work

jmpd22

OP, look into the private companies if you can find a suitable car park. for example at the docks you can get an annual parking space 7 days a week for 600 euro (only 50 euro a month) which is less than half the 5 day council rate and you have the advantage of using it at weekends, leving the car for more than 24 hrs etc.

I will look into that, thank you

jjpep

jjpep wrote: »

I suspect you're right. What they need to do is to start improving those other options at the same time. I cycle to work nearly every day. The infrastructure for this though is pretty poor and is the main thing discouraging more people from trying this as opposed to driving.

Keep in mind that paying for those improvements is, in no large part, done with parking fee's.

An increase in the parking fee will feed into other transport options

Mrs OBumble

jmpd22 wrote: »

I travel in from passed Monivea everyday for work

In the absence of proper Park and Ride faciltiies (which you should lobby your TD and local councillors for), you could park in to Athenry and use BusLink perhaps? Or park at the racecourse and use the 409 or 403 bus to get into town?

gordongekko

If you cant afford a fiver for parking it might be time to look at other modes of transport, move nearer your workplace or get a job nearer your home.

sgthighway

I would recommend you keep a log of your difficulties and then send it to Keith Finnegan on Galway Bay FM and send it to City Tribune. A bit of bad PR might see a reaction from the City Council. Include photos of the damage you referred to. At the end of the day €5 is cheap. You could discuss with your employer about them arranging car parking for you and deducting a contribution from your wages.

Mars Bar

It was annoying for me today. I was parked for all of 3 hours and paid the €5. The man I gave the ticket to seemed happy enough so at least there is that.

sgthighway

Mars Bar wrote: »

It was annoying for me today. I was parked for all of 3 hours and paid the €5. The man I gave the ticket to seemed happy enough so at least there is that.

That what I will always do. I would actually wait for somebody to come in for a spot. A bit of Karma is what I might need :-)

what_traffic

Deleted User wrote: »

This is just the beginning of the plans to encourage people to move from private cars to other means of transport (bus, cycle, walk, park and ride etc)
Expect the price of parking in the council car parks to go a lot higher in coming years or for all day parking to be done aways with.

Not sure about this. According to this article the Council have plans to double the amount of car parking with a multistory at the Dyke Road? Maybe the €1 hike is for the multistory car park?

http://connachttribune.ie/leading-construction-firms-show-interest-dyke-road-redevelopment-200/
"
But the main ‘cash-cow’ in terms of revenue for the City Council would involve the more than doubling of the number of car parking spaces on the Dyke Road to around 1,200 – having the potential to generate up to €2 million annually.
"

youngrun

jmpd22 wrote: »

I will look into that, thank you

Def cheaper options in multi story car parks annual tickets, closer to town as well , works out at 2 euro a day or less generally with 7 day access

whineflu

What about joining a car pool so that you don't have to pay for parking everyday? That would not only reduce the cost of parking but also petrol and wear and tear on your car too. Given your long commute you'd also reduce the mileage and improve the resale value of your car.
Twenty years ago cars coming to work in the offices and factories in (and near) the city were all full with 5 people to a car. A lot of people chose not to own cars due to the cost of owning and running them.

pure.conya

Deleted User wrote: »

Keep in mind that paying for those improvements is, in no large part, done with parking fee's.

An increase in the parking fee will feed into other transport options

will it fcuk, this is GCC you're talking about here

pure.conya

pure.conya wrote: »

will it fcuk, this is GCC you're talking about here

Please enlighten us

ben.schlomo

Deleted User wrote: »

pure.conya wrote: »

will it fcuk, this is GCC you're talking about here

Please enlighten us

Why enlighten when a rant tells you so much less.

TPD

Slight hijack but this thread seems to have some folks in the know. I'm moving to Galway shortly, near the bierhaus, and will need to park my car on the street. I need to give the council a copy of my lease agreement, a bill in my name, and my insurance document at the new address, in order to get a residents permit. That'll take a bit of time to gather and send off.

Any tips on a place I could leave my car in the meantime? I shouldn't need it too often so a 30+ minute walk isn't an issue.

biko

Salthill prom has a big parking lot with no fee. Car will be exposed to the elements though.

Mrs OBumble

Have you got any friends living in the area? Ask them to get you some visitors permits. 24 hours for €2.50.