The Chamber of Commerce is currently trying to gain parity of shopping and trading conditions in respect to Off Street Parking fees in all the main towns in the new Mid-Ulster Council area.
Freedom of Information requests have showed severe disparity and discrimination against Magherafelt traders and shoppers compared to neighbouring towns.
For the three year period for 2012 through to 2014 there were 2965 Penalty Charge Notices (Parking Tickets)more issued in Magherafelt than Cookstown resulting in £133,425 being extracted from Magherafelt traders and shoppers more than Cookstown shoppers.
Representatives of the Chamber of Commerce meet with Transport NI Minister Danny Kennedy at Stormont on the 13th of April 2015 to discuss the inequality of trading conditions being imposed on Magherafelt town. The Minister had Adrain O’Callaghan head of parking enforcement present at the meeting and the consensus was that Transport NI officials had faith in NSL to administer the legislation fairly.
The responsibility for Off Street Parking has now been transferred to the new Mid-Ulster Council and the Chamber is vehemently pursuing this issue to ensure that Magherafelt traders and shoppers will be treated equally. The Chamber has another current Freed Of Information request submitted to Transport NI to view data on just how much revenue has been collected from all the car parks in Magherafelt for the past three financial years.
We will post this information on this page when it is made available to the Chamber.