JUST when Dublin's clampers couldn't feel any more unloved, they saw public sympathies side against them this week in favour of . . . traffic wardens. The brown-clad brigade rode to the defence of drivers who were "entrapped" by poor sign-posting and over-zealous policing and, in the process, condemned the clampers to further depths of unpopularity.
"It doesn't bother me," says Mr Fred Mooney, a senior clamping supervisor, of the daily abuse he receives. "You do get some verbal but, genuinely, you would get more compliments than you would get insults."
The former taxi-driver-cum-barman-cum-worker with the Department of Defence says he is "more than happy" doing the job. "If you ask businesses around Stephen's Green or other places, they'll tell you it's a massive improvement. Traffic is moving more freely and there's more parking available."
The view is echoed by Mr Con Coll, Dublin Corporation's principal traffic officer, who rejected as "over the top" the claim by wardens that the clampers have created a climate of fear in the city.
"While we cannot guarantee there won't be the odd occasion where it was wrong to clamp, we like to think that overall the system is effective but fair."
However, the wardens, who are facing redundancies in a new restructuring plan, have highlighted an anomaly in relation to sign-posting which has forced the clampers to return at least one £65 fine.
Donnybrook motorist Mr Paul Regan won his appeal against being clamped outside his home after Control Plus, the British-based company which runs the clamping operation, admitted the street signage was "inadequate and confusing". Having compared the clampers to Strongbow and the Black and Tans, he told Control Plus, along with Dublin Corporation, to "stick your apology".
The wardens say there are many more motorists like him, citing dozens of locations throughout Dublin where sign-posting is poor or ambiguous.
Among the areas they mention are Stephen's Green, where there is a sign indicating no parking except horse-drawn vehicles, which they say has no meaning in law. Another is Eustace Street, Temple Bar, where signs are placed on walls across the footpath out of sight of drivers.
Yesterday, The Irish Times saw a car which had been clamped in a space marked by both a parking and a taxi sign.
"Most people who park in these sorts of places are not deliberately breaking the law. They are just confused," says one traffic warden. "We wouldn't ticket anyone where the signs are ambiguous because we are subject to the law but the clampers don't seem to be."
To the corporation, however, such complaints smack of sour grapes and are derived from the wardens' concerns about their future under a new move from the Department of Justice to the local authority's payroll. It is expected the number of wardens on the streets will be reduced by as much as two-thirds or 100 staff.
On signage, the corporation says any problems have now been resolved and only a minimal number of complaints have been received.
"Of course, mistakes happen from time to time," says Mr Jason Ballard, general manager of Control Plus, "but if you look at the figures, we've done over 10,000 clamps in six months, about 10 per cent of which were appealed. Of those, we only refunded about 68, not because of errors but because of mitigating circumstances, because we felt sympathy or because there were medical reasons involved."
The Dublin clampers, he adds, are "far more lenient" than those in London where Control Plus runs clamping operations. It also operated in Manchester and Oxford. "Here we have grace times built in to make it more fair. We're not required by law to do that."
Such grace times range from zero in the case of loading bays to as much as 20 minutes depending on the offence, although exact times are not publicised.
The biggest difference between Ireland and Britain, he says, is that "you have to be very productive over there".
"Local authorities are very demanding in terms of results. They want to see X amount of clamps or they will switch to a competitor and there is a lot of competition to keep the contracts.
"Here, we work closely with the corporation to get the correct balance. Their brief is not to get everyone you can but to have an even-handed approach across the board."
The revenue incentive cannot be ignored, however. Westminster, one of London's 30-plus local authorities, raised £33 million profit in 1997 from clamping, parking metres and tickets and such lucrative rewards have not gone unnoticed by Dublin Corporation.
Since clamping was introduced eight months ago, revenue from parking metres has doubled from £3 million in 1997 to an expected minimum of £6 million this year. In addition, clamping fines of £750,000 have been raised. And that's not to mention the benefit to the corporation's three multi-storey car parks, which include the city's largest at the ILAC Centre.
Mr Coll says the additional revenue from metres is "ring-fenced" for traffic control measures which will benefit motorists. The local authority is now engaged in a £3.5 million traffic-calming programme which covers the installation of new traffic signals and a state-of-the-art control centre at Wood Quay, due to open within weeks.
He stresses, however, that the clamping initiative is "for traffic management, not making money".
"Unlike in the UK, there are no bonuses for staff whether they clamp 10 or 20 or 30 cars."
Nevertheless, he admits the system still can be improved and says the corporation is looking at providing a facility to allow motorists pay fines to the clamper with a credit card. This would remove the offending car from the space immediately, rather than after the one to two hours it takes for the release officer to arrive.
In relation to clamping cars parked in clearways and bus lanes, he says it can be justified to deter such parking in the future. "We won't clamp a vehicle that is going to block an emergency entrance but we may at times highlight the deterrent when the rationale may be that you shouldn't clamp."
Such an uncompromising approach is not going to make life any easier for the clampers at the coal face like Mr Mooney. "The worst are people who don't even drive a car and stop you on the street to give out. But you just have to carry on and do the job."
And to those of you who wish to avoid the clampers in Dublin, they do their thing Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. On Thursday and Friday they work until midnight in Temple Bar and on Saturdays watch out between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. Sundays? On Sun- days the clampers have a lie-in.