Clamping becoming a 'serious problem' in Mayo county town

CLAMPING in Castlebar is becoming a 'serious problem' again according to local councillors who called on the council management to put a stop to it.

The issue of clamping was raised at the May monthly meeting of the Castlebar Municipal District by Independent councillor Michael Kilcoyne who claimed that cars are being illegally clamped in the town.

Ten years ago, there was controversy in Castlebar over the clamping of cars in private car parks which resulted in the Castlebar Municipal District passing a motion to ban clamping in the town.

“Clamping of vehicles was outlawed by Castlebar Town Council when vehicles started to be clamped in a certain establishment in this town. Now it has started again,” Cllr Kilcoyne claimed.

Cllr Kilcoyne cited a video which recently appeared on social media which showed a person being clamped in the wrong.

“Most of you would have seen the video circulated last week where a clamper came along and clamped a car. There is a video where a man clamped the wrong car. The woman was extremely upset,” he said.

Fine Gael councillor Cyril Burke backed up Cllr Kilcoyne saying that clamping was once again a 'serious problem' and claimed that it is all 'about collecting money and nothing else'.

“I got a call from a father of a young girl who had an exam to do and she came on a train from Dublin and her car was clamped by the same firm. That lady lost two hours of her exam time. Whatever the issue was she was right and she shouldn't have been clamped and was told to reclaim her money afterwards. It is about collecting money and nothing else,” he said.

Cllr Kilcoyne claimed that the ban on clamping is part of planning regulations in the town and called on the management of the council to take action against the clampers.

Head of the Municipal District, David Mellet told the meeting that he was not aware of the by-laws in relation to clamping but agreed to look into it.