Cookstown car parking charges pilot scheme 'to start after Easter'

The introduction of paid for parking in the town is one of a number of measures approved by the council as part of its decision to increase district rates by 7.3 per cent.

At a meeting of the committee on Tuesday, February 14, Sinn Fein Councillor Brian McGuigan started a discussion on the planned closure of five recycling centres in the district and proposed a working group is formed to discuss the matter.

Cllr McGuigan was reminded by Councillor Clement Cuthbertson that the rate increase – which was proposed by Sinn Fein and supported by the SDLP – these closures, the end of grass verges being cut in the district’s 30 mph zones and the introduction of parking charges in Cookstown were included.

UUP Councillor Trevor Wilson, who has been opposed to the introduction of parking charges in Cookstown from the beginning, said that one measure should not be cherry-picked for discussion over others and called for the working group to also look at the parking charges in Cookstown and grass verge cutting which are to implemented.

After some discussion between councillors, the council’s deputy chief executive, Anne-Marie Campbell, said parking charges would not be introduced in Cookstown before the results of the agreed pilot scheme were brought to the committee.

“There is a pilot meant to be happening and basically nothing will be happening in Cookstown until the results of that pilot come back and Terry [Scullion, Council’s assistant director of property services] can update on timescales around that,” she said.

Mr Scullion said the pilot scheme is set to be implemented “after the Easter period”.

“There will then be a number of weeks which will take us into May to get the car park operational but that is the intention at this stage,” he said.

“The agreement that was made through Council was to bring a report back on the impact of the arrangement and it is hoped a report would be brought back to committee in the summer or early autumn, once that has had the chance to run for a number of months.”

Cllr Wilson wondered aloud if these timescales are accurate how the council would make the £100,000 it is anticipating to do from the introduction of these charges in the 2023/24 financial year.

“The introduction of these charges is to generate £100,000 in 2023/24, according to the report circulated at the rates meeting,” said Cllr Wilson.

“If the time scales quoted tonight prove to be accurate, we must be thinking people will be queuing up to get into our paid for car parks in Cookstown to generate that type of revenue.”