Taximen’s anger as wardens fail to ticket Mayor’s car

Frustrated taxi drivers in Galway City are still being ticketed for parking at the private bus station at the Fairgreen – and yet, they say, the Mayor’s car is allowed to pull up there for an hour and three quarters without any question.

The expensive Volvo car was parked at the bus station at the Fairgreen but did not attract the attention of the traffic wardens.

Ironically, Mayor Frank Fahy is himself a taxi driver by profession.

But Henry Hegerty of Taxi Drivers Galway said that the minute the Mayor’s car departed the scene, the traffic wardens arrived and advised them that they should not be parked there.

He said that there were 150,000 passengers arriving at the coach station on an annual basis and there was no taxi space provided by Galway City Council.

Mr Hegerty said that there was European law which stipulated that there be some form of public transport available within 15 metres of a drop-off point but it obviously did not apply to Galway city.

There are almost 1,000 taxis in Galway city and just 68 spaces available – there are no spaces provided in or around the coach station.

Taxi drivers have asked for loading bays to become available to them at times when they are not in use by businesses, but this has not yielded a postive response from Galway City Council.

Mr Hegarty said that he had been before the courts more times than a serial criminal for parking fines and was continuing a campaign for taxi spaces to be provided at the coach station.

“There are two main bus companies that bring more than 150,000 people to Galway city on an annual basis and these people have to walk half a kilometre to avail of a taxi rank. That is not acceptable.

“We are being hounded by the traffic wardens and yet when the Mayor’s car is parked outside the bus station, they are nowhere to be seen. It is obviously one law for the Mayor and another for us”, Mr Hegerty added.

He said that it was infuriating that the Mayor Frank Fahy’s car could be allowed park there for such a lengthy period of time and taxi drivers were either being ticketed or asked to move on if they decided to park at the same spot.