Sir, – I had my car clamped at the Red Cow Luas stop on Tuesday. In the process of buying one parking ticket and one tram ticket, I omitted a digit of my car’s number plate.
Luckily for me, when I returned to the Red Cow and found my car clamped, an employee of the clamping company helped me pay the fine by credit card.
I appealed the charge by attaching a photo of the tickets and sending them to the company by email.
The next day I received a letter informing me that my appeal to cancel the charge was rejected. The bureaucratic pettiness, and the injustice of this decision – I proved that I had paid for a parking ticket, which the clamping company did not deny – is an extraordinary indictment of the culture of this organisation.
How many people have had their vehicle clamped and been financially penalised because they omitted a number or letter while buying a ticket?
And why is the method of buying a parking ticket so convoluted?
It’s an Irish solution to an Irish problem – make everything as complicated as possible and then fine someone for failing to get the process exactly right. – Yours, etc,
DECLAN MANSFIELD,
Gosnells,
Western Australia.