Members of the Newry Chamber of Commerce & Trade and members of The Greater Newry Vision Partnership met with The Minister for Infrastructure Chris Hazzard at a meeting in Newry last Friday.
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The Southern Relief Road is a top policy priority for Newry Chamber and members were briefed on the Department’s commitment to take forward planning and development work on this key project.
President of the Chamber of Commerce, Michael McKeown commented “Newry Chamber welcomes the progress that has been made and will continue to lobby and work with stakeholders to ensure that this valuable economic project is brought to fruition”.
Mary Meehan, Chief Executive of Newry Chamber, took the opportunity to outline the concerns of members at the recent announcement of increased on-street car parking fees from 40p per hour to 60p per hour. She said “This is a 50% increase and could potentially put people of coming into the city centre. We need to concentrate on attracting people into city centres, rather than making money. There is also the issue with the overzealous enforcement by the redcoats here in Newry City Centre. Our members have raised numerous complaints on the excessive issuing of fines and the lack of customer service approach”.
As a follow up, Newry Chamber will formally write to the Department requesting a formal review on the deployment of traffic wardens in the Newry City Centre area and to request a meeting with NSL Services which is contracted on behalf of the Department to carry out enforcement.