My name is Margaret Callaghan. Originally I came from Kinlough in Co. Leitrim but have lived in Ballybofey for the last ten years since I got married. On Sunday, 30th August, myself, my husband, and our three children headed up through the gap to Bundoran to take the kids to a much looked forward to outing to Waterworld in Bundoran.

We arrived there at 1pm, parked the car quite a bit away and had to run in the rain to Waterworld. Nothing unusual in any of that I hear you say. We paid our fee and enjoyed all the slides and fun of Waterworld. We returned to the car two hours later tired but happy and that’s when our bubble burst. A parking ticket was on our windscreen. We looked at it and saw we had to pay Bundoran Town Council 40 Euro.

Like I said at the offset, I come from Kinlough - seven miles from Bundoran - and I never knew you would have to put a parking ticket on your car on a Sunday. I find it unreal in the current economic climate that after spending E47.50 in Waterworld, which we thought was ok, and we got ice creams for eight euro, that another E40 would be added onto our day. I regularly am in Letterkenny and the Twin Towns on a Sunday and you don’t have to put a ticket on your car in those towns, and they are far bigger towns than Bundoran, so why would Bundoran have this in place?

Rip-off Bundoran would best describe the seaside town. Tourists and people like myself are getting caught every day of the week I would imagine in this way. Maybe it is written in big bold letters somewhere that you need a ticket to park in Bundoran on a Sunday? We certainly missed it, if this is the case. For a day out in the future we wouldn’t be botherd with Bundoran and I will pay the e40 but we won’t be back and I wonder is it worth it penalising people in this way? I wouldn’t think so.

Yours,

Margaret Callaghan (nee Keegan),

Goland,

Ballybofey.