Ten minute allowance over expired tickets

Councillors were provided with the update at Monday night’s meeting of the Operational Committee.

It comes as a response to an earlier call by Carrick Councillor John Stewart, who suggested that parking attendants could exercise a more flexible approach before issuing a fixed penalty notice for expired tickets.

During last month’s committee meeting, Cllr Stewart commented: “There are people who do go out of their way to pay for a parking tickets and then, through no fault of their own, have inadvertently gone over their time. We could have a more flexible approach for anything up to 15 minutes.”

Responding to the query on Monday evening, director of Operations Philip Thompson said: “I have spoken to the off-street car parking manager and he confirmed that there is a 10 minute allowance period across the province.”

The local authority has responsibility for some 27 off-street car parks.