RECENT decisions by traffic wardens in Downpatrick which caused widespread anger will top the agenda at a meeting in the town later today.
Members of Down Council’s Corporate Services Committee are to meet with the Department of Regional Development’s (DRD) head of parking enforcement, Mr. Hugh Larmour.
The meeting comes after a series of incidents involving traffic wardens who were heavily criticised for issuing tickets to a Blood Transfusion Service vehicle parked at Church Avenue in the town. The ticket was subsequently rescinded.
Cars belonging to firefighters were also ticketed and two weeks ago, traffic wardens warned school bus drivers parked outside Down High School’s Mount Crescent campus that they were obstructing traffic.
The appearance of the senior DRD official in Downpatrick today is at the request of Councillor Colin McGrath who has been critical of the wardens’ attitude.
He wants Down Council to work with the DRD to ensure there is a “degree of common sense” when it comes to issuing parking tickets and said the Blood Transfusion Service vehicle should not have been ticketed, nor the cars belonging to firemen.
Councillor McGrath said he couldn’t believe that while firefighters were on duty “protecting life and limb” they had parking tickets slapped on their vehicles. He also maintains buses should be allowed to park for a short time on double yellow lines outside Down High School.
Ahead of today’s meeting, he said there needs to be some “good old fashioned common sense” when it comes to issuing parking tickets.
“Tickets have been slapped on a Blood Transfusion lorry and the cars of firefighters attending emergency calls. Are Translink buses next?” he asked.
“My colleagues and I will be looking for answers to a number of questions today, including the exact role of the traffic wardens.”
Councillor McGrath said politicians want to know is the role of the wardens solely to aid traffic flow and ensure people do not go over their allocated time in designated parking areas or is there more to it?
He said politicians also want to know are the wardens employed under a performance-related pay scheme and if so, how exactly is that performance measured?