By Joe McCann
COUNCILLORS have rejected appeals from the borough’s business community for two hours of free parking for people using council owned car parks.
Members of Ards and North Down Council’s Environment Committee have decided the move would be too expensive and have instead proposed charging motorists 50p to park for the first two hours.
The decision, which must be ratified by the full council, was taken after members of the Ards and North Down Business Forum – made up of the chambers of commerce in Bangor, Newtownards, Comber, Holywood and Donaghadee – said free parking would help them combat out of town shopping centres.
At a time when the council is coming under pressure from businesses across the borough over the cost of business rates, claims that the local authority is slow to react to economic challenges and lack of town centre maintenance, councillors have been extremely wary of dismissing the appeal for free parking out of hand.
Instead councillors have agreed to look at backing two hours of free on-street parking, free or reduced parking in car parks at Christmas and ending charging in car parks at 5pm instead of 6pm.
However, they also agreed to reject the two hours free parking appeal from traders in favour of charging 50p to park for two hours in a council-owned car park.
Bangor councillor Alistair Cathcart said if the council was to make on-street car parking free for two hours it would cost approximately £500,000.
“I have a lot of respect for the traders and everyone who sets up in our town and I want to absolutely support them in any way we can,” said the DUP councillor.
“But half a million pounds is a considerable amount of public money that would have to be spent at a time when our car park infrastructure is in a considerable rate of disrepair,” he added.
Proposing the various measures to offset the 50p charge, Mr Cathcart said he believed they will support the local economy ‘especially in the likes of Bangor, where it is very reliant on the night time economy’.
“Free from 5pm will help support those who are going to restaurants, such as those seeking early bird deals, people with young families, where they will probably need to be there for quite a considerable amount of time,” he said.
“The chambers are also raising free parking or reduced parking at Christmas time, as done in other councils. I want that to be assessed as part of this and a report back to look at that.”
He also proposed a consultation with the members of the five chambers of commerce on free on-street parking for two hours, which already occurs in other towns in the province.
“I think actually that would be quite a strong message that you can park on the street for two hours for free, or if you can’t, in a space, in a car park for 50p. I think that’s fairly reasonable,” he said.
UUP councillor Pete Wray supported the proposals and said it was important to review it after six months to see if there was room for improvements.
Mr Wray said the council getting the powers to set its own parking costs is a big deal and said a review would be key.
Alliance councillor Rachel Ashe described the proposals as ‘very fair’. “ I think it’s right that, as it’s noted in the report from officers, that it’s the car park users that are going to pay rather than just have it levied across all of our ratepayers,” she said.
“I think that’s really important and will help us hopefully improve the quality of our car parks as well because we do need to raise that money.”
