Mounting anger over plans to charge for on-street parking charge plan

Ballymena is one of 30 towns earmarked to have charges introduced under new proposals announced by the Department of Regional Development.

But a leading figure in the local retail sector believes that shoppers will stay away from the town centre if they are forced to pay to park even to complete a quick ‘message’.

Audrey Wales MBE, honorary secretary of the local Chamber, told the TIMES: “Ballymena traders and the Council negotiated for a long time to get the parking system in the town the way that is currently is.

“It suits the independent retailers - the ones who own the type of shops that people pop into for five minutes and then go again.

“If you take the demographics of Ballymoney Street, for example, you get people on the way home from picking their kids up at school who pop in to the butcher for meat for the dinner, maybe a loaf of bread from the bakery or picking up a paper from the newsagents.

“The whole process of carrying out whatever business they have to do wouldn’t take any longer that 20 minutes or half an hour - if they have to pay to park for that length of time, they are going to go elsewhere.

“We have had quite a few calls from retailers saying ‘we really need the Chamber to fight our case on this one’.

“We have seen programmes on the television about the death of town centres - we don’t want to be watching one about Ballymena,” added Audrey.

The proposals have also been criticised by Ballymena councillor John Carson who described the proposed charges as a tax on those on low incomes and added that it could hinder economic development in Ballymena.

“I believe that increasing car parking charges is a huge mistake.

“This will prevent people from shopping on the High Street and push more and more people to out of town shopping centres hindering our economy recovery.

“I also believe that this is yet another tax being forced on those on low incomes, many of whom are disabled or have mobility problems. Those most vulnerable in our society have no other choice but to use their cars rather than public transport.

“This comes as a yet another blow for small businesses and the consumer after they were victims of the Tory VAT increase. This increase has affected us all in addition to the soaring price of fuel, to include heating oil and fuel for the car.

“This policy is a mistake and I am totally opposed to it.

“It will damage small businesses and keep people out of small towns when they can park free in many of the out of town shopping centres in the area,” added Cllr Carson.