Mystery over who owns car park in Newcastle

Mystery over who owns car park in Newcastle

11 January 2012 - by DAVID TELFORD

MYSTERY surrounds the ownership of one of Newcastle’s most popular car parks.

The car park is at the southern end of the new town promenade and commands spectacular views across the sea across Dundrum Bay towards St. John’s Point.

Known locally as Patton’s Bridge car park, both Down Council and the Roads Service say they don’t own it and are therefore not responsible for its maintenance.

One politician trying to get to the bottom of the ownership issue is South Down Assemblyman Jim Wells who says someone must be responsible.

The MLA stumbled across the ownership issue while following up a query raised by a constituent which prompted him to contact the Roads Service to see if it owned the car park.

The Roads Service said “no” and referred Mr. Wells to Down Council whose officials also confirmed the local authority does not own the car park.

Council officials referred the Assemblyman back to the Roads Service, stating any car park not owned by the local authority is usually the responsibility of the Department of Regional Development.

This prompted Mr. Wells to contact the Roads Service for a second time and he was informed by the district’s divisional roads manager that following more checks, the Newcastle car park is not Roads Service property.

“It would now appear that one of Newcastle’s most important car park doesn’t have an owner. This very unusual situation raises another problem of who is responsible for its maintenance and upkeep.

“It is vital that the Roads Service, Down Council and the Land Registry get together to sort this situation out,” added Mr. Wells.

A Roads Service spokeswoman confirmed that the Newcastle car park is not its responsibility, with a spokeswoman for Down Council insisting the local authority isn’t responsible for it either.

The council spokeswoman said following review of its asset register, the “local authority does not hold title to the car park.”