Newcastle height barriers

I received this email from my local councillor today,

“Good afternoon David,

Just by way of an update. The Barriers for Downs Road are currently out to tender, one tender response has been received and Council is awaiting two more. Once all three are in, company will be selected and barriers made up. They are bespoke Barriers and will take a wee bit of time to make. The Officer responsible envisages they will be in place May/early June at the latest.

Council Officers have recommended that the new location for the dedicated Motor Homes will be Donard Park. 13 spaces will be removed and 6 dedicated bays will be created. This work is again envisaged to take place end of May/ start of June at the latest.

I trust that this update is of assistance. If we can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact the office.”


I have replied and asked if I could meet with the council officer in order to have as much input to the parking arrangements as possible.

Davy

Assuming that the council officer meets me and wether they take onboard our advice, then the approach that I would be taking is,

1. Since they are depriving us of a legally held right to park in the Downs road and Glen river car parks, and spending a fair bit of money to achieve this, I expect that they will spend a reasonable sum of money on facilitating parking in Donard car park.
2. I will be expecting decent bays of 7m minimum by 3m. as a minimum.
3. I will be expecting that overnighting of 2 to 3 nights will be allowed. In other words an Aire as we know them in France.
4. I will be asking for fresh water and grey disposal, hopefully black as well, but will be happy to get a foot in the door and then push.
5. I am conscious that cars park all over the place in Donard car park, frequently in the coach bays. I will be asking how the dedicated bays will be policed, although after 5pm the car park empties, so vans should be able to occupy the proper spaces.
In the light of what I have stated in this paragraph, I expect that they will allow parking in ordinary car bays, including overnight if necessary, and that they must understand that vans visiting during the day will have to have the right to park in residential streets nearby to allow for all day visits or whilst waiting for access to Donard Park later in the day.

I will be away for 3 weeks from 16th so don’t expect to be able to update during that time. There is support from some of the local politicians and Laura Devin (councillor) and Colin McGrath (MLA) have been quite receptive and aware of the potential for the economy and tourism. I hope with consultation to achieve something.

I must also state that we are in this position because of perceived or actual misuse of the existing car parks by a minority of Motorhomes, so this is in my eyes a defensive move to ensure some provision, albeit not a sea front Aire. Based on that situation, I will not accept any criticism of what I am trying to do or how it pans out. My efforts are carried out with the blessing of motorhomecraic.


Davy

Thanks for the encouraging comments, and yes I am aware of the larger vehicle sizes. I will do my best. This is the continuation of work that I started with assistance from Jack the Rev when he lived in this part of the world. However it was just before the councils merged and we put it on hold. The bolt from the blue ref height barriers got me going again.
I am certainly open to comments or ideas, and if any one has spare time and the motivation I am happy for them to join me on the ‘committee’. You don’t need to be in this council area. I have been putting time into the Ards and N. Down council area plan. You will remember the survey they had running at about Christmas. I am about to make contact with them again to see how the statistics panned out and to hopefully press for more provision in that council area, and if the results are good try and use them for other councils.

Davy

Thanks for the offer Gavster, you never know, you probably have more knowledge than you think. Motorhoming can be a fast learning curve!
Ideally if we can achieve some sort of positive outcome from the Newcastle scenario, then it could open the councils mind to considering other locations. I see no reason why we can’t have some sort of parking in towns like Newry, Warrenpoint, kilkeel, etc up through Downpatrick, Strangford, killinchy and other locations of interest. Bear in mind some of these only need a few dedicated parking bays. Not every location would need services in a small council area. I am hoping Ards and Bangor would adopt a similar outlook. Local knowledge then becomes useful.
Mark&Wendy, even in my 7m van I am always conscious of the need to plan parking. Like most, the option of overhang on to grass is useful. One of my concerns about Donard is that it can become very crowded, thus making manoeuvres challenging. Part of my planning is always to have an escape route of least resistance, ie parking fo drive forward, choosing parking locations with space for rear end swing etc, so your thoughts are definitely in my mind.

Davy

In the same time scale that N Down & Ards have taken advice from us as part of their district redevelopment plan, published the plan, run a Motorhome usage survey that many of you took part in, and now are seeking feedback on 9 potential stopping places,

I have approached the local Sinn Fein councillors office 3 times for a meeting without reply in the Newry, Mourne and Down council who cover Newcastle. I have dropped that route and approached the SDLP before Christmas who have responded to all my contacts. They have endeavoured to get the council to make contact with me. Still waiting. I had intended to contact them next week again since it will be 2 weeks since their last request to the relevant council officer. I shall now ask the local MLA and councillor who have been trying to facilitate some form of consultation for a more formal meeting to press the case and try and demonstrate the backwardness of the council. Time is now pressing, but I do not think it will be an easy or straightforward progress to acquire proper provision.

Interestingly this week in the spectator newspaper there is an article fronted by an Ulster unionist councillor complaining about Motorhomes parking in North Down (Ddee, groomsport, cloughy etc) in the very places the council is proposing parking. It is the usual tirade about free parking, loss of income for caravan sites and overstaying vans. I don’t know wether he is friends with a site owner or just not up to speed with his councils redevelopment plan.

I am hoping to visit most of the proposed sites next week to try and give the council decent feed back, so let me hear your views ( in detail that I can use) on the likely places.

I am just back from 3 weeks in France and it is depressing to be faced with the age old problem. There definitely seems to be a need for a proper lobby group to challenge all of the negative publicity. Individuals can only push for facilities in a small way.

Davy

I had a very useful meeting with a council official who is responsible for car parks within Newry & Down, and hope to follow up with a meeting at Donard Park with my van to highlight the problems there. I also have a meeting with an MLA and a councillor next week to highlight our needs and the councils lack of understanding of the benefits of provision.

Despite the people whom I have met being broadly sympathetic and supportive, I fear Newcastle will be an uphill struggle. Time will tell.

Davy