The decision to introduce car parking charges has been overturned in a ‘heated’ late night full council meeting with a vote of 18 to 14 with 1 abstention.
A group of 6 Ulster Unionists earlier this month used the ‘call in’ procedure to halt the decision. The Call-in provides a mechanism for councillors to intervene when they feel that a decision being made by the elected members needs to be revisited (or possibly changed).
The Ulster Unionist Councillors responsible for the legal challenge on the costal car parking charges are delighted with full council result. A group of 6 Ulster Unionist Councillors called in a Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council decision to implement car parking charges in some of the top tourist destinations across the Borough.
A group spokesperson said “We are delighted that a number of councillors from across the political spectrum have deviated from their original decision to back us in our bid to quash seasonal charges at a number of car parks across our costal towns and villages. We appreciate the pressures Council face in relation to costs associated with the upkeep of car parks which we adopted from central government in the last number of years.
We also appreciate that a number of issues relating to car parking in Coleraine, Ballymoney, Limavady etc have come to the surface during this debate. We have made it clear from the outset that we are well aware of the costs involved with adopting scores of car parks from central government, but feel that the recent recommendation to implement a blanket charge across our tourist hotspots was a knee-jerk reaction with little thought given to the impact on local residents and our tourist industry. Going forward we intend to work alongside council staff and other political parties to develop a fair and common sense approach to car parking, including maintenance costs and which car parks should generate an income.”
FOR (14)
Alderman Campbell, Finlay, Robinson; Councillors Callan, Clarke, Douglas, Duddy, Harding, Holmes, Knight-McQuillan, McCorkell, McLean, Stevenson, Watton
AGAINST (18)
Alderman Cole, Hillis, King, S McKillop; Councillors Baird, Blair, Chivers, Fielding, Hunter, McCandless, McGlinchey, McLaughlin, MA McKillop, P McShane, K Mulholland, A Mulholland, Quigley, Wilson
ABSTAIN (1)
Councillor Beattie
In a statement to Causeway Causeway Coast Community this morning Independent Councillor Padraig McShane has welcomed the decision to overturn the implication of seasonal car parking. The Councillor said ‘The car parking charges proposed were for some of the most iconic parts of our tourism trail in the Causeway Coast & Glens.
The proposal ran against our aspirations as a tourism destination. Charging in Ballintoy Harbour, Portrush or Ballycastle sea front was sending the wrong signals to those we should be welcoming to our Borough. In addition, not enough consideration has been given to local residents who are obliged to use these car parks due to on street parking laws.’
Councillor McShane has consistently voted against what he describes as “unfair proposals that were not considered holistically”.
This story generated huge interest within the Borough and resulted in hundreds of comments on our social media pages ( Causeway Coast Community ) over the last number of weeks.
Totalling up our reach on Facebook alone saw a figure of over 180,000 across multiple posts and an average of 15,000 unique visitors to the website on parking articles alone.
Last month 21 elected members voted for the charges, 11 voted against and 1 member abstained. Following this decision a group of 6 Ulster Unionist Councillors halted the decision by using the “call in” procedure. This can be used if members of the council feel that a decision has been made which will have an adverse impact on the Borough and its residents.
The 6 councillors responsible for blocking the seasonal car parking decision were :
Ald Norman Hillis
Cllr Darryl Wilson
Cllr Joan Baird
Ald William King
Cllr Sandra Hunter
Ald Tom McKeown
The above councillors felt that the potential impact on tourism and on local residents has not been explored in enough detail before taking such an important decision. At the time a UUP spokesperson said that there was no doubt that tourism would suffer, local residents would suffer due to displacement, and those who work in Portrush and indeed use the Portrush medical centre would be adversely affected.
The DUP’s John Finlay defended the decision to implement parking charges last month.
Its great to see that for once common sense has prevailed amongst the different parties on the Causeway Coast & Glens Council. This shows that when push comes to shove that parties can work together and provide the electorate with the service they deserve.
Why not install voluntary car parking charge of £1 and put a notice up to say “supporting the upkeep of the beautiful Causeway Coast and Glens”.
Thank goodness for some good old common sense at last! And many thanks to the counselors with the backbone to make a principled stand against the short-sighted stupidity of just grabbing money, with utter irresponsible disregard for the overall consequences.
A note for future reference: ALL car parks should be given very serious consideration as to a sensible free period before any charge are levied at all, to enable people to conduct unavoidable business – visits to medical centres would be just one obvious example of an unavoidable visit. There are others. This area of the province has had a reasonable attitude towards parking until this latest debacle. Let’s try to keep it that way in future.
A lot of consideration given to locals in portrush not being able to park at their home and that they would have to park and pay if these charges were implemented. What about the people of Coleraine who have to do this because of workers in the town parking at their homes for the whole day. I live in Hanover place and can’t drive my car in to the front of my house so I have to park in the lay-by across from the water margin. Even at night we have problems parking because of said water margin customers. I have a problem with my back and can’t walk very far and it’s impossible to bring my weekly shop all the way from a car park. My husband asked the local council if it would be possible to have 1 of the 3 lay-by’s designated for residents of Hanover only and that we would be willing to pay for a permit for the privilege of parking near our home but we were told it wasn’t possible. Obviously the people of Coleraine aren’t as important as the people of portrush. I wish the council would work as hard for us
Anyone who thinks that charging for parking in these particular tourist hot-spots would have been a good idea, needs their heads looked. Yes….there is cost to the up-keep of these areas, however the impact on those visiting regularly including tourists but especially locals and those who frequent them from other areas of N.Ireland, would have been massive. As a family it would have restricted how we did family coastal trips. We happily visit several of these destinations in one day several times a month through the year. The parking charges would have cost us a small fortune.
What I see would be;
-People deciding not to travel because of these additional charges
– Impacted the survival of Roarks cafe ballintoy and trade in all other hotspots.
– Anyone who made walking&Dog walking/running/swimming/surfing etc part of their daily routine….Gone!!
– Businesses arranging trips to these areas for bouldering site seeing and some of the afore mentioned have to raise prices or lose trade.
– Negative impact overall on local tourism
– People choose other hot-spots and find other free hot-spots to frequent in potentially other council areas, spending their money elsewhere.
Voluntary donations sound good to me in support of local upkeep.
Come on councillors……let the things that can be free to families who rely on cost effective day trips remain as such……use common sense. Although they do say, common sense is not that common.
Just my thoughts.
£6.50 being charged today on Portstewart beech for parking I think this is not fair to charge people for this as it just adds more expense to a family trip to the beech for the not so well off . I trip to the beech should be free for all as people pay rates . It is just down to pure greedy councils . Maybe if they publish some of the wages we are paying these people for their services they might have to crawl back under a stone.