Motorists are ‘driving us round the bend’

During a recent Ballymoney Borough Road Safety Committee meeting, members raised the issue of parking at John Street, the lack of parking for Job Centre staff and motorists driving the wrong way up the one-way streets at Hillview Avenue and Armstrong Drive.

The report explained: ‘It was noted that a lot of work had been completed at the Glebeside Spar carpark. The car park was now restricted to customers only with parking being limited to one hour. The issue of parking for staff at the Job Centre was discussed.’

In response Cllr Roma McAfee advised that parking problems continued in terms of the number of cars parked on both sides of the road outside residents’ houses. There was no dedicated parking for staff a the Job Centre and no site had been identified in the area which could be used for parking.

Chairman Cllr Tom McKeown stated that the green area which had been suggested was owned by the NIHE adding ‘when they had been contacted they said they were not responsible for parking’.

It was therefore suggested by the Road Safety Committee ‘that an Inter-agency meeting should take place between Committee members, the PSNI, NIHE and Road Service to discuss the problem.’

Mr Sam Knox added that the meeting should include Inspector David Anderson, elected members, Road Service and David Smyth. It was agreed that the Chairman would progress this matter.

Addressing a similar issue, Mr Knox also referred to previous problems regarding cars driving the wrong way up the one-way streets at Hillview Avenue and Armstrong Drive. He explained that he had spoken to Constable Ricky Black who felt that a letter drop in the area would not be fair to those who were not guilty. He had said that it would be helpful if he got intelligence on vehicles which were committing the offence.

However Cllr McAfee said that it was difficult to get this information or to specify particular times it was happening. She had spoken to a number of people highlighting to them that it was a one-way street.

Constable Henry agreed to speak to Constable O’Neill to see if it was possible to put down a classifier which could identify the time of day and he would establish if they could also be used to identify the direction of travel. This intelligence could then be given to Constable Black.

Constable Henry also agreed to raise the issue of a mail drop, it would be common practice to blitz the whole area. Concluding Cllr McAfee commented: “This would at least indicate to residents that something was being done about the problem.”

* Meanwhile the Times has also been made aware that residents from the Parkview area in Glebeside have also complained about the parking of vehicles on both sides of the road near the old UDR camp leaving only room for one vehicle to drive through at a time. And with the proposed development of more houses in the area, locals feel that the situation will only get worse.