Waterford parking app malfunctions adding additional fees
People who are registered with two local authorities might be overcharged in Waterford says councillor.
At the most recent Plenary meeting of Waterford City and County Council, local Fianna Fáil Councillor Eamon Quinlan raised that he had been contacted by a member of the public claiming that the Council's new parking app was adding additional fees onto people who were signed up for online parking with more than one local authority.
Speaking at the meeting, Cllr Quinlan said: “I have been contacted by an individual who regularly parks in Waterford city centre for work and uses our app. They have noticed that since they signed up for app-based parking in Tipperary, they are being charged extra fees for parking in Waterford. They are parking in Co. Tipperary maybe 5% of the time, and Waterford 95% of the time but this hasn’t stopped additional fees being charged on every parking transaction they now make in Waterford in any of our Council-owned car parks, or on street parking.
"My understanding is that there is no reason for the additional fees. The person parking isn’t getting anything extra for the additional charges."
The Council’s Director of Services for Roads and Infrastructure, Gabriel Hynes, responded that this was the first he was hearing of it and as such couldn’t confirm if any reports had been received into the council by other members of the public.
Mr Hynes advised that the roads and parking team would look into the app’s performance and that he would revert. He also advised that, as a general policy, if the council was found to be overcharging people, then they would be entitled to refunds.
Later, Cllr Quinlan told the Waterford News & Star: “Parking is likely to become a strong issue of discussion in the coming weeks as people engage in pre-Christmas shopping, retailers seek to maximize footfall and people seek to park as close to their destination as possible with the cold weather.”
