MORE THAN half of the appeals by motorists against the decisions of Dublin city clamping company, Dublin Street Parking Services (DSPS), were upheld last year by the city's independent parking appeals officer.
DSPS dismissed just over 80 per cent of claims by motorists who felt their cars had been wrongly or unfairly clamped. However, motorists who appealed these rulings to the parking appeals officer Liam Keilthy were successful in 54 per cent of cases.
In his third annual report, to be presented to Dublin city councillors later this week, Mr Keilthy said the total number of claims against the clampers remained low; more than 60,000 cars were clamped in 2007, but just under 2,000 people made claims to the clampers and just over 400 made appeals to Mr Keilthy.
Any motorist seeking redress for unfair clamping must initially make their claim directly to the clampers; it is only if this is unsuccessful that an appeal may be made to Mr Keilthy.
However, while DSPS rejects eight out of 10 claims, Mr Keilthy has upheld half of the appeals and has consistently done so since his first report in 2005.
More than 40 per cent of appeals to Mr Keilthy were from people who had either bought a permit which had not been visible to the clampers or had displayed a permit which they claimed was ignored by the clampers.
Almost 20 per cent of appellants said poor signage had led them to believe they were parking correctly. A small number of claims related to medical emergencies or were on compassionate or "good Samaritan" grounds, while 8 per cent of claims were from foreign tourists unaware of the parking regulations.
Mr Keilthy upheld all the appeals by foreign tourists and by those who had a "real emergency". He said it was also his policy to issue a refund to a garda on official business and to motorists who were not unclamped within two hours of paying the €80 fine.
