A Northern Ireland council is to begin a review of controversial parking charges at its forest parks this week.
Newry, Mourne and Down District Council (NMDDC) began charging motorists to enter Kilbroney and Slieve Gullion forest parks in April amid a public outcry.
The local authority approved the new tariffs despite an online petition against the charges gaining thousands of signatories and objections from some councillors.
Following a Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) query, a NMDDC spokesperson said: “Newry, Mourne and Down District Council will be undertaking a six-month review of Forest Park Parking Permits, which will commence after the system has been operational for six months, on Tuesday, October 22, 2024.
“Details on findings, policy and revenue will be available when this review has been completed.”
A 12-week public consultation was carried out on Slieve Gullion and Kilbroney charges from November 2020 to January 2021 with significant delay in providing the findings to councillors.
The results showed the vast majority of the 1,666 respondents, at 70%, said “they would not consider purchasing an annual pass”.
Delamont Country Park and Castlewellan Forest Park also charge visitors with all four council maintained parks included in combined visitor permit.
The cost for an annual ‘All Parks’ pass is £25 for residents and £60 for non-residents.
A proposal by the then council chairperson, Sinn Féin’s Cathy Mason, in 2022, brought about free car parking permits to NMDDC residents for one forest park of their choice.
Otherwise, the charge for a family car is £5 per day with a £50 fee for buses.
Residents can also buy an annual pass for all forest parks at a cost of £25.
It seems now that opposition to the parking charges has been tempered in the last six months.
Crotlieve independent cllr, Jarlath Tinnelly said: “The car parking charges for Kilbroney was something that I was passionately against at the time due to the history of it.
“When the proposal came about for car parking charges it was post-Covid and the council was struggling to gain revenue.”
In the 1970s, Cllr Tinnelly’s grandfather John Tinnelly, a local councillor, was part of a group who campaigned for the council to buy Kilbroney to prevent it from being developed for housing.
He added: “If the review was to show that the forest park charges have gone some way to allay that problem of revenue, then it may be more practical and realistic to have brought in the charges.
“I will say that I have had little in the way of complaints over the charges since they came in and I can also say that I believe that is down to the free permit passes for residents.
“Sometimes you have to pick your battles and try to reach a compromise and I believe that is what we reached.”
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