Newry BID facilitates off-street parking meeting

Our recent engagement event with 100 members confirmed parking as the number one issue for businesses in Newry.

Whilst we believe that “On Street” (Department for Infrastructure) enforcement is the major issue for traders there are also concerns with “Off Street” (Car Parks) parking.

The recent pressure on the BIDs FREE Car Park for members at North Street confirms this.

The BID facilitated a meeting for members last night (Monday 12^th November) with Council on the Councils long term “Off Street” parking strategy.

AECOM Consultancy gave a presentation and BID members were able to ask questions after.

We are encouraging members to complete the below short survey to assist our lobbying efforts on this important area:

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/LCS8B9W

The BID would like to remind members that Newry has 6 of the 11 pay car parks in the Council district from Cullaville to Saintfield meaning that Newry is effectively subsidising all other car parks in the Council District.

That this “off-street” inequality is compounded by Newry’s status as one of 3 Central Parking Zones in NI (with Belfast & Lisburn) which means we are heavily enforced “on-street”.

Further, we have specific local issues with daily bus commuters to Dublin and Belfast effectively creating quasi park and rides in the centre of Newry and preventing the re-use of spaces for shoppers and visitors.

Newry BID will also be commissioning an independent professional report to submit to this consultation process and we will likely be speaking to your business as part of that.

Your input to the above survey and the BID report are very important to ensure business concerns are heard.