A decision by planners to block cheap parking for the Belfast City Airport was “anti-competitive and anti-enterprise”, according to NI Conservatives’ environment spokesman, Brian McBride.
“This decision, which the environment minister has endorsed, emphasises a lot of what is wrong with our planning service in Northern Ireland, as well as the lack of backing for enterprise at Stormont”, Brian explained. “The Boal car-parking service was operating out of an existing car-park at Ikea, offering customers a cheaper alternative to official car-parks at the Belfast City Airport and providing some competition where, otherwise, there is none.”
“There was absolutely no clear reason why planners had to get involved in this situation at all. Yet it was ruled that the owner had to ‘identify a need’ for his business to the planning service and it was then decided that no such need existed. That’s crazy whenever you consider that the car-park had been running for 2 years and that customers had been using it.”
“We need an efficient planning service, which protects the environment, but provides speedy decisions, with an eye to helping create jobs and grow the economy. We certainly don’t need a planning service which throws up unnecessary obstacles for businesses or intervenes to prevent competition. This debacle over car-parking at the City Airport emphasises the need for a radical overhaul of our planning system and for executive ministers who understand the importance of business and enterprise for Northern Ireland’s future.”