Parking on pavements is ‘only getting worse’ in towns

At a meeting of the local authority’s environment committee members were told the Department for Infrastructure has launched a consultation on inconsiderate pavement parking just before Christmas and the council agreed to issue a response at its monthly meeting in January.

A draft response, worked up by council officers, calls for “support measures” to curtail inconsiderate parking and notes the needs for a public information campaign to highlight the problems caused by inconsiderate parking as, the response claims, parking on the pavement is now “so common it has become a social norm”.

In conclusion, the response notes a solution will not be found with a “one-size fits all approach” and says the issue cannot be considered without first considering the impact of a lack of parking in both residential and urban areas.

Commenting on the consultation, Councillor Clement Cuthbertson said the problem of pavement parking is only getting worse and called for a multi-agency approach to address the situation.

“We want to move away from parking on footpaths as we know it is dangerous for disabled people but unfortunately in some estates there is no other option.

“If they are not blocking the footpath they are blocking the road and emergency vehicle access,” he said.

“I believe there has to be a multi-agency approach to this.

“If you have a housing development where there is land belonging to the Department for Infrastructure or the Northern Ireland Housing Executive I think the onus needs to be on them to create a few parking spaces.

“That won’t work in every estate or town but there needs to be a multi-agency approach and I think our response needs to call for more spaces to be created in these developments.”

Councillor Brian McGuigan said he was in agreement with Cllr Cuthbertson and said a “multi-agency approach should be explored”.

“The Housing Executive will tell you, they only own 10 per cent of a development so it is not worth their while investing money into additional car parking and DfI Roads has no remit to provide extra parking, if someone else provides it they will adopt it but they will not put it there,” said Cllr McGuigan.

“There is a job of work to be done but the points are well made. We are been constantly lobbied about parking issues both in our towns and estates.”