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Castlebar Town Council - Refund of parking fine sought

Year Concluded: 2006

Complaint Details:

The complainant's car was ticketed for being parked on a yellow box in a Castlebar Town Council car park. The complainant acknowledged that she may not have been parked in a designated parking space but maintained that on the day in question, it was snowing and when she arrived at the car park, the ground was covered with snow and there was no way of knowing the exact location of the designated parking spaces. She appealed the matter to the Council but her appeal was rejected. In correspondence with my Office, the Council confirmed that it was snowing continuously on the day in question and that no attempt was made to clear the fallen snow. The Traffic Warden who had issued the ticket maintained that at the time of the offence, there was no snow on the ground and that there is an onus on drivers to be aware of parking signs etc.

While the complainant was not parked correctly, having regard to the circumstances which existed on the day of the alleged offence, my Office considered that inflexibility in the application of the relevant regulations would give rise to inequity in this case. I requested that the Council review its position and having considered the situation in detail, the Council decided to cancel the fine and issued a refund to the complainant.

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