Labour Councillor Angela Feeney Highlights What Commuters in Kildare pay in clamping charges at rail stations and calls for change to payment rules
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Labour Councillor, Angela Feeney, said the payment rules must change for commuters who are clamped at train stations. During a cost of living crisis, people should not have to pay on the spot to get their car unclamped. It is also a public safety matter.
Figures released to Cllr Feeney’s by her colleague, Deputy Seán Sherlock, revealed the amounts being paid in clamping fees at train stations from 2018 to date.
Cllr Feeney said that as well as the cost of removing the clamp, the safety of commuters waiting at night for the removal of the clamp must be taken into consideration. Commuters leaving their car are faced with a €120 fee to remove the clamp. She added that while it is absolutely accepted that people must pay the parking charges, the reality is sometimes the machines are not working, the app does not reload or people just simply forget.
Commuters are left stranded when they get back to their cars in the evening and realise that their car has been clamped. On cold, dark nights, people are left waiting at the train station for the clampers to come back and remove the clamp.
It’s time to have a look at this. I am calling on Irish Rail to change the rules around clamping so that people do not have to pay on the spot to get the clamp removed. It would be preferable to see a removal of the clamping process given the need for payment, which is heightened in a cost of living crisis, compounded by the public safety issue where an individual arrives back at their car late at night and it’s clamped.
Clamping should not be seen as a purely revenue raising exercise. I would urge Irish Rail to consider the Labour Party’s call and make it safer for commuters.