Cheaper to fly than park at Belfast International Airport - Elliott & Donaldson
Ulster Unionist Assembly candidates for Fermanagh & South Tyrone, Kenny Donaldson and Tom Elliott have criticised the decision by Q Park to scrap the free parking of 10 minutes and motorists will be forced to pay a fee of £1.00 for 30 minutes.
In a joint statement: Kenny and Tom said: “We find this latest announcement by Q Park as totally unacceptable and follows on from increases by this company in October 2006 and then massive increases announced in January 2007. From what was heralded as a new era of cheap parking is now becoming much too expensive and takes no account of the views of the travelling public.
It is scandalous that for 30 minutes, motorists are forced to pay £1.00 and for 1 hour £3.00. What should have been considered was that the travelling public should have offered was a free parking for the first 30 minutes and then a standard charge of £1.50 for 1 hour, to encourage the travelling public to use the recognised car parks rather than park on hard shoulders and await calls from passengers when they are out of the terminal building.
These current car parking charges do not represent good value for money and the public will continue to park some distances from the airport, causing traffic congestion near to the airport and could also pose serious road safety risks. It is now possible to get cheap flights to many destinations cheaper than pay 3 days tariffs for parking. The new rates come into effect on 1 March 2007 and are the third increase imposed by Q Park in less than 1 year and will probably mean the public will continue to avoid using these car parks. Q Park has missed an opportunity to encourage more motorists to use their car parks, if they had offered free parking for the first 30 minutes. This will continue to discourage motorists from entering the terminal building.”