One in ten parking fines is overturned

One in ten parking tickets issued by Galway County Council is overturned on appeal.

Some 1,672 parking fines were issued right across the county last year, according to statistics released to the Connacht Tribune under the Freedom of Information Act.

That translates as four parking tickets issued for every day of the year.

The figures show that 181 of the fines issued, or 10.8%, were overturned on appeal.

Meanwhile, FOI documents reveal that two County Council traffic wardens complained to their employer between 2014 and 2016 in relation to them having been subjected to verbal and or physical abuse from members of the public during the course of carrying out their work in issuing parking fines.

A further 202 parking tickets issued in 2015 remain unpaid, the statistics show. These fines may have been pursued through the courts.

The number of parking fines overturned was even higher the previous year. In 2014, Galway County Council issued some 1,859 parking tickets in towns across the county. It represented ten per cent more parking tickets compared with last year.

Of the 1,859 issued in 2014, some 216 tickets were overturned, which is 11.6% of all fines issued that year.

Some 199 parking tickets issued in 2014 by the County Council remain unpaid, which equates to 10.7% of all tickets issued. They may have been pursued through the courts.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.