Magee College neighbours appeal for long-term solution to traffic and parking nightmare
Magee College neighbours appeal for long-term solution to traffic and parking nightmare
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00:00 but anybody, you know, pushing a pram or wheelchair.
00:04 I've actually seen elderly people,
00:07 you know, with sticks,
00:11 actually having to walk out into the road
00:13 'cause they can't get by.
00:15 Now, we have a great system with the police.
00:17 The police are really as good as they can be,
00:20 given that, you know, they are police
00:21 and they're doing other things.
00:23 But they're really good in that I can notify them
00:27 and they will notify people now.
00:29 And the thing about it too is
00:31 they're not anymore giving warnings.
00:33 They're actually going straight to endorsement and the fine.
00:37 - You've explained that there used to be an issue,
00:40 maybe it was nightlife and these things happened.
00:43 That stayed off, that's not a problem so much?
00:44 - No, not at all.
00:45 Since we started, what is it now?
00:47 It must be 18 years ago, we started the warden's scheme.
00:50 Because this road is the designated way for the students.
00:58 And if you think about it, you know,
01:00 there's 580 students down there.
01:03 So they come down, they go back for lunch,
01:05 they come back and back again.
01:07 That's over 2,000 footfalls in a day.
01:11 So it's important that the road is secure and safe
01:14 and people don't park on,
01:16 I would think that's something like Shipkey Street
01:17 on a Saturday, you know.
01:19 - This is a very old residential area.
01:21 - Yes.
01:22 - It wasn't designed for this at all?
01:23 - Not at all, not at all.
01:24 It's all, as you can see here, the gap, you know,
01:27 and just now, I don't know if you caught it on the film,
01:30 but an ambulance just went by and it's filling it.
01:34 I had an oil delivery this morning
01:36 and the lorry coming down,
01:37 now he's got difficulty getting by.
01:39 Occasionally people get their wing mirrors--
01:42 - Clipped.
01:43 - Clipped, occasionally.
01:45 It really isn't done, it really isn't good.
01:47 And now up the road in Duncraighan,
01:50 the same thing is happening.
01:51 And that, of course, is a major thoroughfare.
01:53 - Yeah.
01:54 - You know, it's an ancient way, that.
01:55 - So what needs to happen?
01:57 - What's gotta happen is we've got to think about it
02:00 in joined up thinking.
02:02 You can't have planners building flats willy-nilly,
02:07 so that, you know, with no parking.
02:10 You've got to also say,
02:12 look at it from the point of view of a walled city.
02:15 If you go to Ely, Cambridge, Oxford,
02:19 cities all over the place,
02:21 they do park and ride systems, which work for people.
02:25 And buses, you know, obviously take people
02:27 backwards and forwards.
02:28 If it's a major tourist town, that's gotta happen.
02:31 And I don't think there's,
02:32 I don't think there is any kind of long-term,
02:35 thought out, joined up thinking.
02:38 - We all want to see Magee expand to a full university.
02:43 But I think what you're saying is
02:45 the infrastructure has to be put in place.
02:46 - It has to be.
02:47 When I first came home in, when was it, 2005,
02:52 18 years ago, is that right?
02:54 Yeah, 18 years ago.
02:56 We were talking about 3,500 students.
02:58 It's now 5,000, 5,500.
03:01 And that is wonderful.
03:03 900 of those are medics of one type or another.
03:06 You know, we need medical provision.
03:08 - It's a big success.
03:09 - It's a great success story.
03:11 And that has to be encouraged.
03:13 And Malachy O'Neill and his people in the university,
03:15 Gareth and so on, great stuff.
03:17 All behind them.
03:18 And, you know, the residents here
03:19 would all be very much in favor.
03:22 But there has to be some kind of joined up thinking.
03:25 I'll tell you what it's gonna be.
03:27 I'll tell you what it's gonna be, Kevin.
03:28 What's gonna happen is, one of these days,
03:30 one of these students is gonna be walking down here
03:32 and they'll walk through and they'll get injured
03:35 or even killed.
03:36 And you know what's gonna happen.
03:37 There'll be people going, "Oh, oh, oh,
03:39 we must do something," and all that kind of stuff.
03:41 - I was gonna say that the thing about this area
03:43 is it's largely settled.
03:45 - Oh, yeah.
03:46 - Elderly population.
03:47 But if you had people in these houses,
03:49 if you had kids, young children,
03:51 you could see it happening quite easily.
03:52 - Yes, the elderly, if you don't mind.
03:54 I would prefer mature or pre-elderly.
03:58 But no, no, you're absolutely right.
03:59 It's a settled community and most of us are,
04:02 there aren't that many small families.
04:05 - But if there were, quite as you say,
04:07 and it could happen with a student as well.
04:09 - Oh, yeah, absolutely.
04:10 Absolutely so.
04:11 And, you know, we do have these tragedies
04:13 from time to time where, you know,
04:15 with drink and drugs and things like that,
04:17 which appall you.
04:19 Something that is our own fault
04:21 'cause we haven't considered it
04:22 in the grand scheme of things,
04:26 that would just be tragic.
04:27 It would break your heart.
04:29 Not just us.
04:30 It's Bond Street across the river.
04:32 The bog is awful, isn't it, down there?
04:34 You know, it's terrible.
04:36 It's not just these areas.
04:37 It needs to be a thought-out program
04:39 for the whole of the city.
04:41 - Up at Glen Rosemount and all that sort of thing.
04:44 - Argyle, up there, the medical center,
04:46 is it Northland Medical Center, I think it is?
04:48 That area, you know, there's people coming out
04:50 who are not well, and it's really very, very congested.
04:54 Very difficult.
04:56 I think the expression is over-parked.
04:58 You're kidding, you know, it's congested.
05:00 It's congested.
05:01 And it wouldn't be tolerated anywhere else.
05:04 You know, you don't have these sorts of systems
05:06 in other places.
05:08 - Yeah.
05:08 - And I don't see why it should be here.