Town centre parking enforcement laws will take months to implement

Due to the Public realm Scheme parking in the town centre has been impacted with free all-day parking on-street parking.

Before this, it was a maximum of one-hour parking in the town centre. But now motorists can use loading bays and disabled parking bays up the town.

This has led to problems for delivery drivers who have at times been forced to park on the paths or in the middle of the road while they make deliveries.

However, due to the changes in road layout in the Public Realm Scheme, the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) has said new legislation is required to define the updated restrictions.

"This work could not be initiated until the scheme was built to allow for any alterations to the design," a DfI spokesperson said. “The legislative process for this is ongoing and will take a number of months to complete.”

Drivers in some parts of Enniskillen town centre can now park their car all day without paying a penny or facing a fine.

Noelle McAloon from Enniskillen BID said they are lobbying DfI concerning the changes and for it to be communicated clearly when the change does come into effect.

"Town centres are designed in such a way that it benefits short stay parking, good turnover of cars and consumers, without this it can be detrimental to footfall and trading," said Mrs. McAloon.

"At the moment we also have cars parking wrongly in spaces that are marked for Disabled badge holders only – which really negatively impacts our valued consumers with disabilities who need to park in the town centre.

"We continue to lobby DfI in relation to this and encourage them to implement the legislative process and to communicate this timeline so that we can plan for the reintroduction of parking tickets. We certainly don’t want to face a situation of multiple penalties being issued when consumers are unaware of the changes."

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