Chairman slams ‘irresponsible’ parking at Greenvale

DUP councillor Paul McLean said he couldn’t understand why people, who come to the centre to get fit, can’t walk 70 yards from the car park instead of parking as close as possible to it.

Residents in the Greenvale estate are demanding a meeting with the council to discuss the continuing parking problem.

But the council ruled out a meeting with householders, claiming it was a policing matter and concerns should be addressed to the PSNI.

The MAIL did a check of the car parks on Easter Tuesday and found the front park full - with some parking taking place on footpaths - while the park at the rear was half full.

The council’s monthly meeting was told that in the last five months there have been 235,000 visits to the centre by members of the public and membership now stood at 10,000.

And number of concrete flower pots have recently been introduced to paved areas around the Greenvale to discourage parking close to the building.

DUP councillor Anne Forde said locals had recently been lobbying her about the parking situation and would like to meet with the council.

She said people had complained that parking around the centre had not improved and cars were still taking householders parking space and blocking driveways.

SDLP councillor Jim Campbell said the parking issue at Greenvale had been raised before and the council had taken action.

He suggested that residents concerned about the bad parking should ring the local police as it was a policing matter.

Councillor McLean said it was a policing matter but, if it helped, he would raise it at the next meeting of the District Policing Partnership.

It was agreed that the parking at Greenvale estate would be raised with the PSNI at the next meeting of the Policing Partnership.