BY MARK McKELVEY
m.mckelvey@ulsterherald.com
INDEPENDENT Councillor, Johnny McLaughlin has made an impassioned appeal this week on behalf of the "long suffering" elderly occupants in central areas of Omagh, who have "unthinking or uncaring" motorists parking outside their front doors, causing a "life threatening" situation.
The Omagh Town Councillor highlighted this parking problem that he stated has been ongoing for sometime in front of houses located at convent View, Brook Street, Fairmount Cottages and Gallows Hill areas of Omagh.
"I feel I have no alternative but to take this route and appeal to the better nature of the Omagh motorists and ask for their co-operation on what can at times be a life threatening issue," declared Cllr McLaughlin.
"Immediate and unimpeded access must be available at all times for the essential services, especially doctors on call, health visitors, the Ambulance Service or God forbid, the Fire Service who may be called out in an emergency and for obvious reasons must get as close as possible to those in need."
Cllr McLaughlin stressed that there has been some very close calls recently, but feels that people wouldn't intentionally restrict access causing such a health and safety issue if they knew they were causing "unnecessary worry and stress on these elderly residents".
He said, "I believe we all have a moral duty to protect the most vulnerable in our community, and I implore the people who park there to stop and think about the actual danger they might well be causing to those elderly people."
He asked, "Would they like it to be done to their parents, if they lived in those houses affected by this?
"This is not about double yellow lines, or whether any lines are there at all, this is quite literally about people's lives. Whilst I fully respect the rights of people parking where no lines exist or no traffic laws are enforceable, these people are the exception to the rules, and we as a caring community must respect their health and safety."
Meanwhile Omagh Town Ulster Unionist Councillor, Ross Hussey has highlighted a similar situation in the Johnston and Festival Park areas.
"Parking in these residential areas is something I would be critical of," stated Cllr Hussey. "We have all said in the past there is not sufficient parking availability in Omagh town centre, but unfortunately the DRD Road Service don't see that."
He continued, "Unfortunately motorists are now parking in housing estates, which has caused a lot of disruption for residents in those areas. I know an ambulance attempted to get into Johnston Park had to reverse out as he couldn't get space to turn. Also bin lorries cannot get in to empty bins.
"This is a major issue within Omagh town and is something that will have to be dealt with to find a solution."
A police spokesperson confirmed that parking in these residential areas of the town in itself is not a crime.
"We can only take action against vehicles that have been parked illegally or parked in such a way to present a danger or cause an obstruction," stated the police spokesperson.
