Newcastle height barriers

When the height barriers were first passed by the council it was Hazzards party who were chair of the relevant committee. Their local councillor was photographed beside a Motorhome all smiles and stating provision would be made for visitors. I approached his office on three different occasions after this asking for a meeting and never got as much as an acknowledgement. Interestingly the committee who put forward the legislation heard evidence from complainants but had not the wit or decency to ask for input by any one in the motorhoming world.

Someone from another Motorhome group did after that complain about disabled access being denied, but the council apperantly held an equality impact assessment which overruled the complaint. My guess is because there is plenty of disabled parking provision throughout the town for daytime parking which was not of course the issue. Overnight parking is the issue and despite there not being any signage in any council carpark that I have ever come across there exists a bylaw which restricts parking to a maximum of 12 hours. Most carparks in the North have been transferred from central government to become Council owned and regulated. I don’t know what impact that has on Baguettes statement. A similar situation is in train with forest parks beginning with the obvious Gosford fiasco.

Any way I think after much expense the barriers have been manufactured. These are not ordinary plain steel barriers but ‘fancy’, and had to be approved in a further meeting by the council due to cost, so I cannot see much chance of a u turn.

Since then I have worked with an SDLP MLA and also a councillor to try and limit the damage and at least secure some provision in the town. I stated at the time it was a damage limitation exercise. There is acceptance by the two elected representatives of the value of our money spent in the town and to that end I have been working with the council officer in charge of carparks in the district. We have had several meetings including bringing my van to locations for information and education purposes.

We have discussed and visited around five alternative locations, but these decisions all require patience and time. In the short term when the barriers do go up at the Downs road car park and the Glen river car park, may I suggest you park at the rock swimming pool carpark which is only a hundred metres or so further south of the Glen river carpark. Or if you wish, Park in the Donard carpark, although this would not be my choice as the spaces are tight and it could be noisy, avoid the coach parking spots if you do decide to use it though. I don’t envisage any issues from the council on these locations.

Another spot under consideration, but which would need an existing barrier removed, but could be pleasant is the Island park on the Bryansford Avenue. I have pushed another two locations but will not name them as we don’t want another Donaghadee scenario. I am hoping that we end up with three or four locations each taking 3 to 5 vans all of which are not overlooked by residences or likely to draw attention to us other than the self inflicted damage we seem to be so capable of.

So that is the current status. I have not been in touch with the council for about 2 months now, but envisage when the barriers do go up to seek a meeting with the elected reps, my carparks official and also to try and get the tourist officials into the mix, but I have been treading water until we see what comes of the legal action in the N Down council area as this could have knockon effects.

Davy

See THIS LINK

Has the council fulfilled its obligations under Section 5

Section 13 is also interesting, particularly the reference to a local authority should appraise its parking policies and the way those policies are being implemented, to see which traffic management objectives are being met and where improvements are needed what have height restrictions have to do with traffic management

Also of note is the definition A Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) is a parking scheme which provides parking controls to ensure a balance of the needs of residents, businesses and visitors whilst ensuring the management of congestion,
again it's all about traffic management, nowhere can I find any reference to restricting access to parking on the basis of vehicle height.