It has been a while since my last blog and I was intending to write chapter 2 of my “History of Barratt Tours but the events of this weekend have changed my mind a little – so the next one will be chapter 2 – I promise.
Some of you may be aware of the ongoing problems that we have been having at The Cliffs of Moher but for those of you aren’t here is a re-cap. The new visitor centre at The Cliffs opened on the 8th February this year in a blaze of publicity by Bertie Ahearne. What did not receive quite so much publicity was the protest by 50 coaches and operators at the new parking charges – sorry, “ facilities charges” being levied on visiting coaches these are as follows:
For up to 15 passengers – Eu25.00
For up to 39 passengers – Eu50.00
And over 39 – Eu60.00
These prices do not include any admission fees.
We were and are very much opposed to this outrageous price structure and together with the majority of our fellow day tour operators took the decision not to support the visitor centre in every way possible – so we have had to resort to picking up and setting down customers at the roadside and parking elsewhere.
It has been reported by certain parties that we are doing this as a result of a lack of care for our customers but nothing could be further from the truth. The sole motivation for this action has been to protect our customers from the inevitable price increase that would result from paying the charges. Also we have had no price increase in our day tour prices for 6 years now and we have managed to absorb fuel and insurance increases but this level of pricing is just unsustainable.
This weekend Clare County Council has taken the action of employing a traffic warden to hand out tickets to all operators picking up and setting down outside the visitor centre and we have now collected 3 of these. We seriously doubt the legality of these as we have yet to park and are only picking up and setting down for a maximum of 2 minutes at a time but this point will be tested very soon.
We will continue to fight our cause and can assure those concerned that the “bully boy” tactics currently being employed has only served to strengthen our resolve as we believe totally in what we are doing and will never be forced to pay for something that we were never consulted about in the first place.
On a personal level the stress that this situation has caused me and Christine lately has been huge and when combined with the daily worries of running our tours and in particular the number of roadworks in Clare lately has made for a rather uneasy season but hopefully this has not had any effect on our customers enjoyment of our tours.
We will keep you posted of developments as they happen but thanks to those of you that have travelled with us for your kind words of support – they really do make our struggle seem worthwhile.
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