By Iain Gray
LOUD music and blaring car horns are set to be banned from council-owned car parks.
The move comes as Ards and North Down Council imposes new rules on 27 free-to-use facilities it runs around the borough.
The car parks are all at tourism and leisure hotspots, such as the golden sands of the borough’s beaches, as well as town centres and large sports facilities.
The car horn ban will certainly come as a relief to Bangor residents, who are regularly hit by noise problems close to the city’s Ballyholme Beach.
Last summer the beach’s car park at Bank Lane became a mecca for anti-social behaviour, regularly hitting the headlines as revellers played loud music late into the night alongside underage drinking, car races and booze-fuelled brawls.
But the new rules aren’t universally popular, as motorhome and caravan owners have objected to parts of the regime that will block them from staying overnight.
The council’s coming system for car parks was due to be debated at a committee meeting that got under way shortly after this newspaper went to press on Wednesday night.
Official reports state that drivers using the 27 car parks will be banned from sounding their horns ‘except when about to change the position of the vehicle or to depart from [a] parking place’.
They’ll also be barred from playing music ‘to the annoyance or unreasonable disturbance’ of nearby residents or other users of the car park.
In addition, booze will be banned from the car parks, and motorists won’t be allowed to keep their engines running after they’ve driven into a space.
The new rules are likely to come into force at the start of July, with councillors hoping the music ban will give them the power to clean up problem spots like Bank Lane.
However the regime also stops people parking a caravan in any of the 27 facilities overnight, as motorhomes won’t be allowed into any of them between 11pm and 6am.
That’s earned the ire of caravan owners, with one writing to the council complaining that they’re ‘being alienated’ by the new rules.
The caravanner stated that day-tripping motorhome owners often prefer to park up in a safe place for the night, instead of struggling to find a pitch in a caravan site at short notice or making the long drive home – but that will be outlawed in Ards and North Down.
In reports, council officials state that they still aspire towards ‘facilitating the use of designated car parks for overnight motorhome use’ and may revise the new system at some point in the future.
The rules have to pass a vote at this week’s committee and then be rubber-stamped by a full council meeting at the end of this month before they can come into effect.
