COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, October 12, 2009

QUESTION NO.9

QUESTION: Councillor D. Keating

To ask the Manager to provide an up-to-date report on the results of the Manager's work following the introduction of the regulation prohibiting the parking of cars for sale on public places in our county, including greens, grass verges, footpaths etc., and that the Manager would report in detail on an area by area basis?

REPLY:

Section 71 of the Roads Act 1993 provides that it is an offence to place or retain a vehicle used for the purposes of advertising, the sale of goods, the provision of services or other similar purpose on a public road/ footpath/grass margin or any public property without the authorisation of the Roads Authority. Following consideration by the Transportation Strategic Policy Committee, a draft policy initiative was developed which was recommended for approval by the SPC at its meeting held on 8th November 2007. The Council at its meeting held on 10th December 2007 adopted and approved the recommendation of the SPC and the policy has been continuously implemented as resources allowed since.

Every premises which sells or offers motor vehicles for sale in the County has been visited on many occasions and verbal warnings, written warnings and final warnings have been issued as necessary. The co-operation of the Gardai in visiting these premises in conjunction with the Council Officials must be acknowledged and every opportunity was extended to firms to bring their operations into line with the provisions of the legislation. However despite the extensive campaign by the Council some firms continued to place vehicles in the public domain in contravention of Section 71.

Accordingly as provided for under the provisions of Section 71. the Council has exercised the option of seizing the vehicles which are in breach of the legislation. A large number of seizures have taken place in most areas of the County. Compliance with the legislation has improved since the Council commenced seizing vehicles however a small number of premises continue to cause difficulties. A review of the operations carried out to date is underway in conjunction with the Gardai to determine whether a further policy initiative is required and a report on this matter will be made to a future meeting of the Strategic Policy Committee in due course. However the Council continues to monitor the situation. If any member of the Council is aware of any premises that are being operated in breach of section 71, it would be appreciated if the details, including make, model and registration numbers of the vehicles involved could be supplied to the Roads Department.