By Alan Healy
A consultation due to start this month on a proposed residents’ parking scheme for the Bogside area has been delayed until next year, it has emerged.
The Derry News revealed last month how the government department responsible for the scheme, Department for Infrastructure (DfI), stated that formal consultation on the proposals would begin in November.
The Rossville Street Residents’ Parking Scheme for the Bogside was first floated in 2007, with residents in the area given fresh hope that the scheme would become a reality after the then Minister for Infrastructure, Chris Hazzard, announced the scheme during a visit to the city.
In statement issued to the Derry News last month, a spokesperson for the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) said that it ‘is expected that a formal consultation will commence in November 2017 and this will allow residents and the public to review and comment on the scheme’.
However, it’s now emerged that the consultation has been put off until next year.
The news came at a special meeting of Derry City and Strabane District Council’s Environment and Regeneration committee, where representatives from the DfI’s Roads Division gave an update on a number of schemes planned for the local district.
Speaking at the meeting, Development Section Engineer, Deaglan MacBride, said that the formal consultation would now begin ‘early New Year’.
Commenting, SDLP councillor Brian Tierney said while a report presented to the committee said that the consultation was due to start in the ‘coming weeks’, but that it ‘didn’t seem to be any closer’.
Responding, Mr MacBride said that ‘stuff has been happening’ in relation to the scheme, adding that a ‘lot of issues had been brought up’ and that it had been a ‘busy year’ for his department.
He continued that the proposed scheme was ‘very big’ as it would involve 500 residents of the Bogside.
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