Donegall Pass residents during last week's protest
Residents unite again in protest against proposed parking charges
Thursday, May 08, 2008
By Gráinne McWilliams
THE Markets and Donegall Pass areas of south Belfast united in protest again
last week against the long-running issue of commuter parking.
Several hundred residents blocked entrances into the two areas at the height
of rush hour traffic in protest at proposals by the Department for Regional
Development (DRD) to force residents to pay to park outside their homes.
Deirdre Hargey of the Markets' Development Association said: "The Markets
area is protesting in solidarity with Donegall Pass to highlight once again
the ongoing issue of commuter parking and to highlight our concerns over the
proposals for a new parking scheme which charges residents to park.
"We do welcome the introduction of a scheme to tackle the issue, but we do
not feel we have to pay for the implementation of that because the residents
did not cause the problems to begin with."
A spokeswoman for the DRD said: "A charge is usual as part of residents'
parking schemes and is used to put in place a system to stop commuter
parking".
