'Safety fears' over lack of family-friendly car parking spaces

A mother of three who is also a Mid and East Antrim Borough councillor is calling for more parent and child parking in off-street car parks.

Lauren Gray brought forward the motion to the council following difficulties getting her own children out of the car safely.

"I've had to leave my three-year-old with my baby on the sidewalk while I try to reverse to get the doors open," she said.

"That really is a safety fear but I had no other option."

The council said the borough currently has 13 family-friendly bays in its town car parks with plans for that number to increase.

Mid and East Antrim Council is one of only five local authorities in Northern Ireland with parent and child spaces at its council-run car parks. This does not include facilities at leisures centres.

But Ms Gray said the number of family-friendly spaces was "lacking" in the council's car parks.

"Modern life doesn't really blend well with our existing town infrastructure because our towns are quite old," she said.

She said increasing the number of bays would "ease stress for local families and carers" who need to get toddlers, babies and prams out of their cars.

"We need to make our town centre more accessible if we want people to come and shop and spend time here," she added.

"Not only is this a real safety issue for parents and carers, it really is a combined effort to get everybody into the town centre so that we can continue to grow and increase our footfall."

Amy Moore from Whitehead, County Antrim, agreed, saying it was "definitely hard getting out of a normal car parking space with two children".

"Anywhere that we go to park we need both doors open to get them out," she said.

"We've got the baby bag and all of the things to get out of the car so we definitely need the extra space."

Mrs Moore said, on occasion, she has "driven around three or four times to find a space that would be suitable".

"I think a lot of the cars now have increased in size now but the spaces haven't increased as well," she said.

Amy's mother Anna Rolloos has four grandchildren and said it can be "difficult" to get them all in and out of the car.

Ms Rolloos said she needs space to open the doors, get the pram out and her youngest grandchild strapped in before getting the other children out.

"It's the safety of having them all close beside you, being able to open the doors of the car," she said.

"One of the children maybe needs someone holding their hand."

She said having parent and child spaces close to shops is "excellent" as it means "not having to walk them through a busy car park".

The motion calling for more parent and child parking bays at Mid and East Antrim Borough Council was backed unanimously in February.

A spokesperson added that an additional 22 family-friendly bays were due to be added in Ballymena car parks.

Derry City and Strabane Council recently introduced new bays and Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council has plans to increase the number of spaces from 14 to 18.

Belfast City Council has 17 family-friendly spaces across 30 car parks with no plans to increase that number, while Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council has six such spaces with plans for additional spaces in the pipeline.

Ards and North Down Council as well as Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council have no family-friendly spaces at their off-street car parks, but there are some at their leisure facilities.

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council does not provide any parent and child car parking spaces within its car parks, adding that councils are "not legally obligated" to do so.

Mid Ulster does not have any parent and child spaces in any of the council-maintained car parks and has no plans to change that.

Likewise, Fermanagh and Omagh District Council does not provide parent-child parking spaces in its off street car parks but is currently reviewing its overall car parking plan.

Causeway Coast and Glens said the council did not keep a record of such information.