A survey of the Lower Malone area undertaken in November 2008 indicated that parking was an issue for many people in the area. It is therefore proposed that a residents’ parking scheme in this area will be delivered by means of a Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ). A CPZ is an area where all on-street parking is controlled. For more information about the proposed scheme and what it will entail, please go to the Frequently Asked Questions page in the menu along the top.
The streets comprising the Controlled Parking Zone for the Lower Malone area are as follows:
- Cussick Street
- Eglantine Avenue
- Eglantine Gardens
- Eglantine Place
- Malone Avenue (including alleyway adjacent to No. 2 Malone Avenue)
- Park Lane
- Wellesley Avenue
- Wellington Park
- Wellington Park Avenue
- Wellington Park Terrace East
- Wellington Park Terrace West
This scheme will operate from 9AM – 6PM, Mondays to Fridays.
A total of 540 parking bays are proposed for the Lower Malone parking scheme. 380 of these are Residents’ (permit) parking bays and 160 are Pay and Display bays.
A detailed plan of the area is available for download below.
Detailed plan: 400981-005-15_Malone TRO Schedule_Rev K
Hard copies of the layout map can also be viewed during office hours at:
- Amey Offices – Cadogan Park
- Malone Lodge Hotel reception
- Wellington Park hotel
Objections or other representations may be made to the Department for Regional Development c/o Amey, Rushmere House, 46 Cadogan Park, Belfast BT9 6H within a period of 22 days from the date of publication.
All objections or other representations must be in writing and must specify the grounds on which they are made. Information you provide, including personal information, could be published or disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) or the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR). For further details on confidentiality, the FOIA and the EIR please refer to www.ico.org.uk
Please feel free to leave a comment in the box below, but note that it will not be recorded as a formal objection or other representation. If you wish to comment on the proposal, please write to:
Amey Offices Rushmere House 46 Cadogan Park Belfast BT9 6HH Telephone: 028 9068 9843
Or email: residentsparking@amey.co.uk
The consultation period ends on 20th November 2014.
Belfast Residents' Parking 
Lower Malone Residents’ Association
An Association publically constituted in 1990 to preserve the residential amenity of Wellesley Avenue, Wellington Park, Eglantine Avenue, Malone Avenue and the cross streets that link them
28th October 2014
Dear Neighbour
Today you will receive information from Transport NI about a permit parking scheme for our area. We can all agree that parking and traffic progression have reached crisis point on our streets and we believe that this is driving residents from the area and discouraging others from moving into the neighbourhood.
We believe that this scheme will bring the following advantages:
Being able to find a parking space during the working day.
Parking restrictions will be regularly enforced; this will free up passing places along the streets, ensuring a better flow of traffic than at present.
Commuters will no longer drive around our neighbourhood searching for a parking space; this too will reduce congestion.
Parking will no longer be permitted on footpaths; this will improve the safety of pedestrians. Marked parking bays will ensure considerate parking so that alleyways and drive ways are not blocked.
Residents will no longer feel compelled to pave over their front gardens; this will have a positive impact on the streetscape and the drainage of surface water.
We urge all residents to respond within the 22 day consultation period.
Yours sincerely,
LMRA committee
A parking scheme in the area would be fantastic, I hope there is sufficient support to ensure the scheme goes ahead.
I look forward to the day I don’t have to drive round and round looking for a parking space.
We have no off street parking. Parking has become such a problem that we have considered taking away our hedge and front garden to create forecourt parking. I feel it is an un neighbourly thing to do – not only detracting from the appearance of the street but effectively removing 3 on street parking spaces. With permit parking we wouldn’t feel compelled to do this but I’m afraid that without it we really don’t have any other option.
This is a sensible, much needed and long overdue scheme in the Lower Malone area from which residents and businesses alike stand to benefit.
Residents will be able to park near their homes without the hindrance caused by commuter parking.
Park and display areas will help local businesses by allowing customers to park and visit shops where parking is presently very difficult.
Well done Roads Service for bringing this scheme forward!
St Thomas’ church on Eglantine Avenue
We are aware of parking difficulties for residents in the area and welcome this proposed scheme.
The previous comment highlights just one of the flaws in this proposed scheme. Indeed every householder in Wellington Park has a garden space at the front of their homes with the option to use it for private parking. Many people would wish to continue to enjoy having a front garden but if controlled parking came in there would be such a reduction in chances to secure a parking space, and no guarantee that they would even be entitled to a residents permit, that they will be forced to concrete over much loved gardens to compensate for the removal of a fair chance at finding a parking space. This would have a detrimental impact on the street scape and the residential appearance of the Park, to say nothing of the signage that would be placed around the street warning people about parking penalties and other street furniture such as pay meters. These proposals threaten to reverse the tide of change which has seen the re-establishment of the residential character of this area and attracted young families such as my own to live here. These proposals should be opposed by all those who care about retaining the character of this historic tree lined avenue; otherwise the damage, which will be irreversible, will leave a lasting legacy of a poorly considered decision for those who come after us.
I welcome the implementation of the Residents’ Parking Scheme in the Lower Malone Area. This is long overdue. The streets are currently very congested especially around Wellington Park. This does not encourage families to live in this area. There are a number of derelict properties locally. I have been advised by a local estate agent that having a parking scheme will improve the chances of selling local properties. In the longer term, house property prices in the area will improve.
What we want in a vibrant local community. Such a scheme will encourage new residents – both older and younger people. I have a daughter living in Cardiff. She and her friends have no problems with the parking scheme on their street. It works well..
The Lower Malone Residents’ Association is anxious to point out that the hours of operation of the proposed scheme are 9am to 6pm Monday to Friday. It is important that the implementation of the scheme is not compromised by misinformation. Please refer to the very helpful frequently asked questions section on this site.
I find this proposal quite bizarre. If every neighbourhood took this approach, no one could park anywhere that there is a residential address. When you buy or rent property, you do not own the street, so why would we deprive the public of public space. The problem should be resolved by creating a residents car park, not use public space for personal needs.
The proposals are indeed bizarre– what benefit is there for anyone when under the proposed experiment only a selected number of residents (remember not all residents will qualify under the proposals) can use permits between 9 and 6pm mon-fri. Surely this is the time when people are away from their homes and at work? It is during this time that the streets, Wellington Park in particular, are used by commuters who live elsewhere and work nearby. Outside of these times residents have little difficulty finding a parking space. Why would residents wish to deny others the chance of a parking space during a time in the day when they will probably have no use for one? What is proposed is unfair and ignores the fact that everyone has an equal right to use the road for driving and parking.
We have been advised that, while noted, comments on the website will not be recorded as a formal objection or other representation. Please see above for details on making a formal representation.
Everyone I know in this area without off-street parking welcomes the scheme. I wish it had been introduced years ago. It is nonsense to say that most people who live here are out at work all day. What about people who work at home? What about stay-at-home parents? What about all the retired people like myself? Residents’ parking is the only way to keep out neighbourhood residential.
Apart from the delightful thought that I shall be able to park near my home,
the most important consequence of this scheme, will be the considerable improvement in the residential amenity of the area.
Families will be more likely to buy; we are close to schools;
when they know they can park their car.
We are the ONLY part of the UK and Ireland that does not have a Resisdents’ parking scheme.
I think it time we joined the 21st century
It is worth highlighting that very strong support for this scheme has already been established through an informal consultation carried out by Roads Service in November 2012.
Some 464 people responded to the then proposed scheme. Of those, 420 (more than 90%) were in favour, while 32 (around 7%) were against.
See full details in the notes to editors section of the press release that accompanied last week’s announcement.
http://www.northernireland.gov.uk/index/media-centre/news-departments/news-drd/news-drd-291014-kennedy-announces-consultation.htm
From speaking with many of the residents it appears that they believe the initial consultation failed to provide the level of detail which is now emerging and is consequently raising concerns. Most particularly is the impact on the streetscape. Furthermore residents are awaiting clarification on the allocation of permits: Are residential permits valid for 1 year? Does the permit expire when the property is sold?Are “released” permits re-entered into the application lottery ?Will those who have been unsuccessful in the first lottery be prioritised in subsequent lotteries? When these and other questions are addressed residents will be in a better position to make an informed response and therefore engage in a more meaningful consultation that the informal one conducted by Roads Service last year.
As there are no permit parking scheme currently operational in Northern Ireland, these questions are difficult to answer. Knowing people living in Permit Parking areas in both Dublin and Glasgow, the positive change on their local environment has been immense.
One issue I have been concerned with for some time – terrible unsafe and unsightly parking. This has become the norm in our area; cars half on pavements, cars parked on corners, junctions, laneways; not only does this pose serious risks to personal safety, but also causes a visual blight.
I have a business on Eglantine Avenue { The Mad Hatter} and I welcome the parking scheme. 9am until 6pm Monday till Friday..I arrive in the mornings before 8am and can’t get parked near my shop due to people parking their cars all day and go off to work.{I see this every day they are not residents} I have elderly customers and also people coming from the City Hospital after receiving treatment and can’t get parked near my business. This scheme can only do good for local businesses and residents.
Crawford & Joanne Forsythe
The lack of information about how exactly the permit scheme will work makes it impossible to consider if it is a benefit or not.
For example what is the rationale for eligibility? All residents should be eligible. If the scheme is aimed at discouraging commuters from parking so residents have a better chance to park nearer their homes, then why would only some residents get a permit?
The permits have to keep changing every year and when people move out of the area and new names put into the hat each time a permit comes up. This seems over complicated. Why not just give everyone with an address in the area a permit and have done with it? After all, they all pay rates so it would be unfair not to treat everyone the same.
There’s just not enough information about this scheme for people to be able to support or oppose it, but it’s safer to oppose it rather than agree to something that might sound good but on closer examination will create more problems than solutions.
The Lower Malone Residents’ Association would again advise residents to read the frequently asked questions on this site where they will find information on permit allocation.
I moved into Wellington Park in 1977 and during all this time have found getting parked fraught with difficulty. I welcome the proposed scheme as I feel it is a step in the right direction and long overdue. It would bring some order to the relentless traffic chaos to be witnessed Monday to Friday at present as well as free-up pavements. It would be important however to ensure that the visual amenity of the area is not unduly damaged by insensitive changes to the streetscape.
I am strongly opposed to the proposed parking scheme in its current form. One of the stated aims of the scheme is to prevent outsiders from parking in the area to the detriment of residents. Whilst I agree with that sentiment, the scheme goes much further than it needs to in order to achieve that goal and I believe will end up causing more inconvenience to residents and other stakeholders in the area.
My principal objections are as follows:
1. Allocation:
It is proposed that parking bays are marked out and rationed amongst residents, with perhaps one allocated per household. This discriminates in favour of owner occupiers and against sharers. If parking is allocated per property, only some residents will be permitted to park near their home. Given the number of HMOs in the area a substantial number of residents will be disadvantaged. I propose that ALL stakeholders in the area should be entitled to park there whenever they wish, whether they be residents, owners or those who work in the immediate area. Those who work in the city centre and just use the area for free parking would therefore be excluded, but all those entitled to park there would have an equal right to compete for the shared space that is available on the streets.
2. Visitors:
I believe that anyone who visits the area for whatever reason, be it to call in on a friend, view a property to buy or rent or visit any of the shops or other businesses on the Lisburn road should be entitled to park for a limited period, say 2 hours, without charge. That would still exclude outsiders from leaving their car in the area and going off to work elsewhere. It would mean residents don’t have to think twice before inviting a friend round and using up one of their valuable visitors permits and enables as many short visits throughout the day as one wants. It avoids all parking inconvenience when a carer, trades person or anyone else calls for a short time. In rented properties for example, regular gas safety checks are required and someone has park their van to carry these out. Owners and residents should be able to manage their lives and their property without additional cost and inconvenience.