On-street parking is ‘not working as it was intended’ says Poots

Mr Poots said; “The initial concept of the charges, particularly in relation to on street parking, was to ensure that there was a good flow of traffic which was uninterrupted by illegal parking and secondly there was a turnover of vehicles allowing people to access local businesses as opposed to the facility being abused by all day parkers.

“On the first element, that has been successful and the second part it has been partially successful in that it certainly does deter all day parkers, however one considerable aspect of the original reasons for doing this is clearly not working and that is the access that people have to local business.

“This is not down to the policy in that most people don’t mind having to pay a small amount of money for the convenience of being able to call into the local shop with a reasonable chance of getting parked, but is down to the overzealous enforcement that takes place.

“Indeed, over the course of the last number of years, our office has regularly been contacted by both traders and members of the public who have had bad experiences.”

He continued: “I would advocate that rather that raising the fees considerably above the fees for careless driving or speeding, that the numbers used for enforcement is reduced and that greater flexibility is given to those carrying it out to ensure that the basic principles of good traffic movement and turnover remain whilst we do not drive people out of our city centres and towns at the same time.”

* What’s your experience of on street parking in Lisburn? Is it achieving the aim of keeping traffic moving or do you agree with Edwin Poots that the enforcement is ‘over-zealous’. Email us at [email protected], write to us at 12A Bow Street, Lisburn BT28 1BN or contact us through facebook or Twitter.