Car park scheme proves contentious

The Jethro Centre has lodged an application to increase its parking provision by using the former storage yard in the adjacent Mid Ulster Granite and Stone Co Ltd.

The contentious issue arises over access to the car park which is proposed to be through a laneway on the Avenue Road instead of via the main Jethro Centre entrance on Flush Place.

Paul and Joyce Blakely have lived on the Avenue Road for the past seven years in the house beside the laneway and have deeds which indicate they own the proposed access route.

Joyce said: "The Jethro Centre is a very busy place right through the week. There's sometimes things on until all hours of the morning.

"We only got letters about this last week - the same time it went in the Lurgan Mail. It would have been nice to be consulted beforehand."

Her husband Paul added: "It's only a single track laneway with no lighting or kerbing in place. It wasn't designed for this amount of traffic. I'd be amazed if someone isn't knocked down in the first week."

Paul added: "We have to step straight out the back into the laneway to get into our garden and garage.

“There's kids going about on their bikes. The laneway is quiet and somewhere for them to play. This is about the safety of children and our own quality of life."

Paul said the laneway was used by four other households and four families who live in the adjacent apartments. He said all the residents he'd spoken to would be strongly objecting to this proposal.

Joyce talked of alternative solutions: "The entrance into the old Optical Factory is purpose built - could they not use that in some way to access the stone works?" she said.

She added: "For the amount of excavating they did to build this, could they not do a bit more to access the stoneworks from the back? Either that or they could go across the road to where Philip McCallen used to be."

Paul concluded: "We're going to be losing our privacy as well. There's going to be traffic coming and going at all hours of the day and night. Then you get kids hanging around at night - not necessarily ones using the Jethro Centre - and causing trouble. It'll be a living hell for us."

The planning application appeared in last week's 'MAIL' and a meeting was held on Tuesday morning in order to allow residents to discuss their concerns with Jethro officials.

Following the meeting a spokesman for the Jethro Centre said: "A meeting was held between some of the residents accompanied by Mr Harry Hamilton and representatives from Shankill Parish Caring Association to discuss the residents’ concerns.

"It was agreed that a further meeting would be convened to further discuss the issues raised by the residents."