Galway Consultation

Great. I'll be contacting them but I think that it might be a good idea to contact Galway City Councillors to get their support. The Harbour Company is only in it for their own profits. Sorry to be cynical.

If they could be sold the idea of a Cobh style aires, it would surely be a win all round. I’m sure people wouldn’t mind paying €10 or more for proper MH parking.

Hi,
this is an interesting thread to happen on and one which has exercised my mind for quite a while. We visit Galway a couple of times each of the last few years to visit our daughter in college and it proves very difficult to find an overnight parking place between the end of September and Easter. We did avail of the parking at the marina on a number of occasions and were most disappointed to see a total ban on overnight parking there when we visited Galway in February. Lest we got clamped we resorted to parking up along a noisy Threadneeddle Road. I had occasion to return to Galway in early April and decided in advance of travelling, to contact the Harbour office to see what was the reason behind the total ban on overnight motorhome parking. I was put through to a very helpful and unhurried gentleman who gave me a comprehensive outline of what triggered the ban. Firstly, he explained that on an occasion last year a child ran out from between two parked campers and was within a hair's breadth of being hit by a passing motorist. The driver lodged a compliant with the company and demanded action as he thought he had actually struck the child. Sometime latter he contacted the office to enquire as to what action the company had taken or was planning to take.
Secondly, he explained that the company operates on a 7 day basis and clients of the company need access to the port on a 24/7 basis. Sometimes, especially at the weekends, clients have been blocked from entering the port due campervans parking in front of the gates despite abundant signage instructing people not to do so.
Thirdly, he said that on one occasion last year when a client approached a campervan owner who was blocking access to the port gates the owner proceeded to give the client a box in the face which resulted in the client having to go to hospital.
For those reasons the company felt obliged to ban motorhome over-nighting at the marina.
There you have it! Now I felt the gentleman was truthful and not exaggerating and was in no way dictatorial; in fact he said the company was losing a lot of revenue from lost parking charges.
So in conclusion, two of the above reasons illustrate that inconsiderate assholes always win - well done assholes, take a bow.
Now, despite all that, I still think it is more than worthwhile getting in touch with the Harbour Co. with a view to resolving the issue and the suggestion of contacting the newly elected Councillors is worthy of a shot.
By the way, I was back again in early May and I did find a suitable place (following advice), very near the centre, to quietly overnight. Sorry all assholes I am not going to reveal where it is.

There is one simple cause for all this put aside the child incident, the child could have run out from between two cars or trucks,not a valid reason to bow to some Motorists ,Parental responsible not the harbour bord .
But the problem is lack of enforcement. Was the Guy charged for assault?. Tow away badly parked vehicle. If social media had videos of motorhomes being lifted they wouldn't have the problem.
They have provided the spaces abuse them at your own cost.

Had the child darted from a red car, perhaps the Harbour company would be well in their rights to ban all red cars. Just to be on the safe side you see. It could be that red car owners are all irresponsible.

Isn't this the bylaw that @baguette was talking about?

It doesn't reflect parking and is done on releasing pollutants. This is our chance to fight this if that's the case.

I am sure Colin can advise. I'm up for crowd funding if everyone else is and of course if you want to go there.

Sorry I'm putting it on you a bit.....

I’m up to chip in also. A disgrace is what it is.

Let's get Mike's (sootyrex) permission before we go any further. It's a lot to take on.

Removed from App

Its probably cheaper to pay that fine than use the site in salthill, it would have cost you over €40 anyway

Another town on my list of avoid's....

Will definitely chip in if a case like this is ever disputed.

****holes. Galway Council, have a wee word with yourselves.

You are as open to tourism as Chernobyl.

Take yourselves off to France and have a look at how they embrace tourism, how they welcome tourism and how they make it work for their economy. You are living in the dark ages, time to get a grip.

Maybe we all should give it one more chance and all arrive in our Motorhomes at the same time when there is some big event like the Galway races there and spend the day driving around the city until we all find a parking space. you would need a couple hundred Motorhomes to let them know how much we love the place.

That's a kick in the teeth.
We stayed there about a month ago for 2 nights.
No where did we see signage banning overnight parking for campers/mh in the Cathedral carpark.
The promenad of Salthill is littered with such signage quoting this 2009 bye law.
I would chip in and fight this folly.

You might be right David but some day you might go to someplace that you do care about and be greeted with the same scenario. There is no point in driving around a small village protesting. I am sick of listening to people whinging here on the site about no overnight parking signs around the Country, I have heard it a 1000 times, so have each and every one of you, we need to get the message across to those that are putting them up and there is only one way doing that and it means people getting off their ass's and fight back. Will it happen? I don't think so, Motorhomers in General are the weakest bunch I have ever come across and if we are going to take it we probably deserve it.

Lessons from Paris Yellow vests
We in Ireland are Sheep. we should learn from the farmers.

Yes, if there is a fund to fight this then I’m in too.

Approximately 10000 vans in Ireland would be great if we could get half of them to arrive in Galway some weekend just for a drive there's nowhere to stop

Totally agree David, can’t be any other way, Last thing we want is to be looked on as trouble makers, we need to highlight the spending power of Motorhomers and the dismay of our Continental cohorts when they reach Ireland’s shores. Basically show up Galway across Europe as been anti motorhome.