BY AILEEN MURPHY

SDLP Fermanagh South Tyrone Assembly Member has told the Northern Ireland Assembly that plans to extend pay and display in Enniskillen must be scrapped. He had tabled a motion calling for the abolition of 'pay and display' in the town.

Speaking in the Assembly Chamber yesterday, Mr Gallagher said: "It was the hope of the people of Northern Ireland that when this Assembly was in place it would be responsive to local needs.

"I have tabled this motion because the needs of a scattered rural population in Fermanagh, an area with poor infrastructure, have to be addressed.

"The town of Enniskillen is a town with serious traffic congestion, with poor traffic management and with inadequate parking provision," he explained.

"The Department of Regional Development (DRD) has now indicated that it intends to extend pay and display parking in Enniskillen, and there is much consternation about this locally.

"This is not a knee jerk reaction to proposed increased costs – local circumstances are such that the consequences of this plan – if it were to be implemented – are very serious for this area."

Mr Gallagher explained the town already has inadequate parking provisions in a county where people rely heavily on their cars to get to work.

He continued: "There are currently 95 free parking spaces at Queens Street which is located at the North Western side of the town – the Social Security Office, the hospital, the Housing Executive and the Tax office are all at this side of town.

"If parking charges were to be introduced here, the only free parking space with reasonable capacity will be at Hollyhill, on the other side of town.

"To avail of this, those who presently use the Queen Street parking facility would have to travel right through the centre of the town, already heavily congested – this is a town in which it can take up to 45 minutes to travel less than one mile, and a town in which people and their political representatives have been calling for a by-pass for more than a decade," the SDLP member continued.

He went on to highlight the added financial burden this would place on people in Fermanagh.

"A recent AA report shows that, over the last 12 months the cost of running a car has risen by £2,000.

"This is unwelcome news for motorists everywhere and for some, leaving the car at home may be an alternative.

"In the West, however, the poor system of public transport means that there is no such alternative – the car is a necessity for getting to work.

"From talking to some who travel by car to work in Enniskillen, I know it is safe to say that their full costs are at least £25 per week or £100 per month. If the car parking charges are introduced they will pay out a further £15 per week or £60 per month.

"This is going to put further pressure on household budgets which are already struggling with mounting demands due to the rise in cost of rates, groceries, electricity and heating oil – not to mention the dread people have about imminent water charges being imposed by the same Department of Regional Development.

"It is little wonder that some of the 650 workers who have signed the petition opposing car charges are saying that if the charges do go ahead then it just won't be worthwhile staying in work," Mr Gallagher explained.

He submitted that any assertion by Road Service that the Queen Street car park was necessary for town centre shopping was undermined by the fact that it was largely empty on Saturdays and Sundays.

"There are issues of equality and fairness implicit in all of this. Many of the workers who use the Queen Street parking facility are on the lower end of the pay scale and, as I have pointed out, in the absence of public transport they have no alternative to using a car to get to work.

"DRD has to recognise the specific needs of local people. They also have to recognise that their failure to invest in infrastructure in the West – in this case in Enniskillen – means they have an added responsibility to the people of the area to ensure they are not even more seriously disadvantaged," he concluded.

"Plans to extend pay and display in Enniskillen must be scrapped," he finshed.