Parking charges frozen until 2015

Speaking after the Executive meeting today the Minister said: “My officials and I have been working hard to gain agreement for the freeze on car parking charges in this budget period and I am pleased that the Executive has come to an agreement on this issue.

“This is exactly the sort of mechanism we need to give a confidence boost to traders and those who shop and work in our towns and cities and it illustrates that elected representatives can deliver positively for our own people.

“I believe that this will be warmly welcomed by shoppers and traders in town centres and it comes at an opportune time in the run up to Christmas.”

Glyn Roberts NIIRTA Chief Executive also welcomed the decision. He said: “This is a very welcome development which NIIRTA has been lobbying for to give our town and city centres more support in these difficult times. This is an early Christmas present to both local traders and shoppers and we appreciate the efforts of Minister Kennedy in securing Executive agreement on this.”

The Minister concluded: “This freeze, combined with the package of measures to support retailers and consumers I announced on Monday, will give a much-needed boost to our local economy and encourage people to get the most out of our town and city centres this Christmas.”

The freeze on car parking will be for the remainder for this budget period, ie, until the end of March 2015.

For full details of the measures click here for details.