A popular walking spot car-park is set to close on 1st April 2019. In a statement on Friday NI Water said that this was due to the interests of public safety. ‘NI Water has taken this decision having been made aware that the sight lines coming out onto the Windyhill Road, are inadequate and constitute a Health and Safety hazard.
Commenting on the matter Councillor William McCandless said ‘I had requested information from Northern Ireland Water concerning the closure of the carpark at Ballinrees.
Basically I enquired if consultation had taken place with residents in the area or the general public, representative bodies such as PSNI or DFI to get their confirmation also if this had been the correct decision.
Before this decision was taken I would have assumed that a risk assessment had been carried out and that there would have been sufficient data in relation to the incident of RTA’s, near misses etc. relating to this sight line.
I also pointed out that this was a well-frequented area for local people to walk and exercise their dogs and that their decision was extremely unpopular and I was concerned that by closing the carpark that people could park close to it on the road and actually create a serious problem.
Their response to date has been, and I quote – “ As your query falls under the definition of an environmental request, N.I. Water will be replying under the disclosure provisions of the environmental information regulations 2004.”
