Thirty-five residents of the Monkstown/Seapoint/Salthill area of south county Dublin have taken a High Court challenge to the installation of parking machine ticket dispensers in the area.
The residents claim the machines have been installed in a conservation area designated by the County Development Plan and that their installation is "impermissble and unlawful". They also claim they are unsightly and injure the visual amenity of the area.
Mr Eamon Galligan SC, for the residents, said they were concerned that the decision taken to erect the machines did not reflect a resolution passed by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council concerning the bye laws associated with the installaton of the machines.
On January 14th, 2002, the Council members voted to approve a motion relating to the parking control bye laws, counsel said. It was agreed no parking machines would appear in a conservation area and a motion to that effect was carried.
He said Councillor Victor Boyhan, in putting forward the proposal, had acted with a mandate from 500 residents in the Monkstown/Seapoint area who had signed a petition opposing the parking machines.
Mr Galligan said the elected representatives had been frustrated as regards the motion and amendment to the draft bye laws which, he claimed, were effectively hijacked by the County Manager and not given effect to.
In February 2002 the Council began to install the metal poles indicating the hours to which parking restrictions applied. On February 25th 2002, an injunction was obtained by the residents and while the machines had been installed, they were not in use because of the injunction.
In an affidavit Mr Stephen Devaney, a barrister, of Longford Terrace, said he was chairman of the Monkstown/Seapoint/Salthill Residents Association. He said the Council was acting in defiance of resolutions passed by the elected members at meetings on July 2nd 2001 and January 14th 2002.
He said the residents were not seeking to frustrate the council but wanted to prohibit the installation of unsightly machines. He suggested discs or tickets could be sold by the defendants through shops or in any other such manner as they saw fit.
The Council denies any unlawful activity or that it had installed the machines in defiance of the express will and resolution of the councillors. The Council also denies it failed to carry into effect the lawful order of the county council or that it had acted in breach of the fundamental principles of local democracy.