PLANS are progressing to introduce new parking legislation in Enniskillen, following the completion of the town’s Public Realm scheme, that will see new disabled parking enforcement.
Currently there is no parking enforcement taking place on the streets of the county town, including the disabled spaces where only blue badge holders should be parking, with the traffic wardens currently only able to enforce the rules in the town’s car parks.
That is because of the changes made to the town centre street parking spaces as part of the Enniskillen Public Realm scheme, with new legislation required to enforce the rules for the new spaces.
This has resulted in many disabled spaces being taken up for full days by drivers, who often aren’t disabled and don’t have a blue badge, causing much disruption to locals who actually need the spaces.
Back in January the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) said a number of steps still had to be taken before the new legislation could be introduced, estimating this would take at least six months.
Last week, with this process continuing, DfI sent letters to residents and businesses who may be affected, outlining how many current disabled spaces in Enniskillen town centre which are currently have unlimited stay times for blue badge holders would be removed and replaced with spaces that will be limited to stays of three hours, with no return within an hour.
The Department published a Notice of Intention regarding the new order in the three Belfast daily newspapers and has produced a map of the locations of the spaces in Enniskillen, which will be available to view online at: www.infrastructure-ni.gov.uk/consultations.
Cllr Victor Warrington, who is a blue badge holder himself, said the introduction of the three hour stay limit would be a return to the previous rules, and said he was looking forward to the new legislation being introduced so the rules could be enforced.
Cllr Warrington has previously hit out at inconsiderate drivers who have been taking up the disable spaces in the town in recent months for full days, despite not being blue badge holders. He said this was still happening, and would continue to happen until legislation was in place.
“There are drivers who wouldn’t dare park in a disabled parking space, but there are a lot who do,” he said.
“At the end of the day, it’s down to having no consideration. They may say they were only five minutes, but if there is a disabled person driving up and somebody is in the space, they’re going to have to drive on.”
Cllr Warrington added Enniskillen was very well served with car parks very close to its shopping centre, much more so than many other towns.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I would love to have the ability to walk from one of the car parks,” he said, adding when the Public Realm scheme was previously opened for consultation he had lobbied for an increase in disabled parking in the town.
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