St Patrick’s Street in Cork remains worst illegal parking blackspot in country

Number of parking fines issued in Cork city rose sharply last year following Covid-19

The number of parking fines issued to motorists in Cork City rose by 57 per cent last year as Cork’s main shopping street retained its reputation as the most likely place in the country for motorists to be caught parking illegally.

New figures released by Cork City Council show a total of 49,956 parking tickets were issued for illegal parking in the city during last year – an annual increase of over 18,000 fines – as traffic returned to normal levels following the lifting of restrictions to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.

It represents an average of 137 motorists getting fined every day with vehicles parked illegally at over 650 different locations across the city.

St Patrick’s Street cemented its record as the location with the highest number of vehicles detected being parked illegally in the Republic for the second year in a row.

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A total of 3,554 motorists were fined for parking offences committed on the city’s main thoroughfare last year – 670 more than in 2021.

The city’s main street – known locally as Pana – replaced South Mall as both the country’s and Cork’s riskiest location to engage in illegal parking in 2021.

South Mall retains 2nd place as a location for getting a parking fine with 1,982 issued last year – almost 700 more than the previous 12-month period.

The top 10 locations were largely unchanged from 2021 with the only one new Cork addition, Parnell Place, where 820 motorists picked up a parking ticket.

The only location to drop out of the top 10 was Douglas Street – although 553 vehicles were still caught parking illegally there last year.

Failure to display a valid parking disc was the most common parking violation by motorists in Cork last year, accounting for 41 per cent of all parking offences with a further 16 per cent having an out-of-time disc.

Over 2,300 motorists were fined for parking on footpaths with the most prominent locations for the offence including St Augustine Street, Railway Street and Bowling Green Street.

A total of 802 motorists were fined for parking their vehicle in spaces reserved for disabled drivers which carries a €150 penalty compared to the standard fine of €40. The offence was most commonly detected on South Mall and Academy Street.

Council figures show overall revenue from parking fees and fines including off-street car park and park-and-ride facilities more than doubled to almost €9.9 million last year from just under €4.7 million in 2021.

A council spokesperson pointed out that revenue from all parking activity last year was in advance of pre-Covid levels in 2019 when it was just over €9 million.

Income from motorists paying fines rose 67 per cent to €2 million, while revenue from people paying for parking by phones narrowly exceeded receipts from the sale of parking discs at just over €1.4 million.

However, the most noticeable increase was in revenue from council-owned car parks and park-and-ride facilities which rose threefold to €5 million.

The latest figures show Tuesday is the day of the week when motorists are mostly likely to receive a parking fine in Cork City with much lower detection rates at weekends as well as Mondays and Fridays.

October had the highest level of fines imposed for illegal parking followed by November, January and February with considerably fewer detections between April and August.

There are about 8,000 paid on-street parking spaces in Cork with approximately 1,800 in the city centre area.

Top 10 locations for parking fines in Cork last year (2021 ranking in brackets)

1. St Patrick’s Street – 3,554 (1)

2. South Mall – 1,982 (2)

3. Corn Market Street – 1,253 (5)

4. Grand Parade – 1,223 (4)

5. Father Matthew Quay – 948 (6)

6. Wellington Road – 939 (10)

7. Cove Street – 888 (7)

8. Parnell Place – 820 (15)

9. Connaught Avenue – 808 (3)

10. Morrison’s Quay – 806 (8)