‘All-day passenger parking causing misery for local residents’
Councillor raises on-street parking concerns
Commuters travelling to work by bus and train have caused parking misery for residents living close to Coleraine station, a councillor has suggested.
The claim was made by PUP councillor Russell Watton during a Q&A session with DfI Roads officials on Tuesday evening.
Cllr Watton said residents were being prevented from parking close to their homes by people who parked up for the day before catching trains and buses to work.
“Around the bus station and railway station is the worst. Ballycastle Road, Bushmills Road, Union Street [are] unreal,” said Cllr Watton
“People are pulling up in their cars, getting on the train and parking up all day. And they are allowed to, but it does nothing for the residents”.
Asked why no residents parking scheme had been implemented, the DfI’s Divisional Roads Manager Alan Keys pointed out that officials had never received an application.
“There was a call put out earlier this year by the department for applications for residents parking schemes
“We did get some from Coleraine, but I don’t think there were any in the areas you have mentioned
“We had applications from Ballymoney and Portrush, as well.
“And those will be assessed and surveys done with the residents. And if the residents are agreeable then schemes will be taken forward.
“It’s closed for this year but it’s an annual process and its up to those communities, if they want residents parking to make an application.”
Meanwhile, Cllr Watton suggested the problem extended beyond the town centre into estates like the one he lived in.
“It’s just getting worse and worse,” he said. “I think sometimes they built these estates and they thought ‘they will never be able to afford cars anyway so we will just leave them the way they are’.
“It’s an absolute mess.
“Two doors from me the father has a car, the mother has a car, the son and the daughter have cars and then you get people just coming in and parking over night in the space you would have thought was your own.”