Frustration in Waterford over ‘administration charge’ being added to parking fees
The issue was raised by Cllr Eamon Quinlan at the July plenary meeting of Waterford City and County Council
There is frustration in Waterford over an “administration charge” being added to parking fees, a council meeting has heard.
The issue was raised by Fianna Fáil councillor Eamon Quinlan at the July plenary meeting of Waterford City and County Council.
Cllr Quinlan first outlined a number of issues that are being experienced by motorists using the council’s eParking app.
He stated: “I’d just like to say that I’ve been inundated with screenshots from people in relation to our parking system, the app in particular.
“Apparently, it’s looking for €10 minimum to update your account, similar to a Leap Card.
“People are asking questions of if they need €6, €7 or €8 on it, what’s happening to this money? I’ve also been advised that it’s constantly been glitching.
“People have been sending screenshots of 10:47am and it’s saying it won’t allow them to do it because they’re out of hours which they’re not.”
Cllr Quinlan went on to outline the administration charge that is causing frustration among local motorists.
“Lastly and most importantly, we councillors set the parking charges across all of Waterford city and county.
“People are showing me screenshots showing that there’s a €1 administration charge now being taken when people are booking their cars’ parking through the app.
“It’s a charge that people can’t opt out of. It’s a charge that is associated with parking, therefore I feel it’s a run around and it’s a dodge.”
He concluded by saying that this fee should not be being charged without the approval of the elected members.
“We councillors have not approved that extra fee. Therefore, I feel that we the councillors and the members of the public are within their rights to challenge that euro.
“That euro should not be attached to people parking without us giving public approval.”
In response, Director of Services Gabriel Hynes acknowledged that there are issues with the parking app.
Mr Hynes said: “Yes, we are having issues with our parking app.
“We are liaising with our contractor, trying to resolve them and certainly, we will only be charging what we are allowed to charge according to our by-laws.
“I hope we’ll be able to get it resolved shortly. If not, we may have to discontinue the parking app.”