Call for clampdown on clampers

A Tullamore councillor and businessman has this week pushed for a clampdown on private clampers operating within Tullamore town. Cllr Tony McCormack said clamping seems to have become a much more frequent occurrance in Tullamore recently and is causing a lot of problems for people. "They're feeling very aggrieved," he said. "It causes a lot of grief." Cllr McCormack has suggested that the option of putting a bye-law in place that prevents private companies clamping cars in the town should be investigated. He said many motorists who have came to him with clamping stories have been clamped after only slightly overstaying their parking ticket time. "To make it worse you have to pay €120 to get this clamp off," he said. "People don't have that extra money." Cllr McCormack has suggested the radical move as a way to take care of people in the town. "I think we need to look at it as a council and protect the people from this carry on," he said. As part of the same motion presented to Tullamore Town Council on Thursday evening Cllr McCormack also called for a change in parking bye-laws for a number of areas in the town immediately, without waiting for the results of a town traffic study. Residents of areas including Marian Place, O'Molloy Street, Clontarf Road and Convent View are being left with no parking spaces, he said, as a result of workers in the town parking in the areas mentioned for the work day. Cllr McCormack said though workers are quite entitled to do so as the bye-laws stand, it leaves residents of those areas without parking spaces or blocked in.