A Castletown commissioner says he is ’exasperated’ by some of the things being done in town by the local authority.

Of particular concern is the approach to parking.

Commissioner Jerry Ludford-Brooks is bringing a notice of motion to the authority meeting tonight (Tuesday) asking for its parking places order - involving charging for car parking at various sites in town - to be delayed until there has been ’meaningful public consultation’.

He said: ’Instead of going at things half cocked there needs to be proper consultation.

’Even the board has not been consulted properly. There was a survey done about parking but there was inadequate consultation.’

The local authority closed the whole of Market Square to parking from the beginning of April to September and said there was alternative parking, which is charged, elsewhere in town.

The closure prompted an outcry from members of the public and traders and a petition against the move was drawn up as people feared the closure would deter shoppers.

The authority did a *-turn and reopened half the square to parking (except for events, when it will fully close).

Mr Ludford-Brooks wants the order to be displayed ’in a prominent public place’ in the Civic Centre and on the town’s public noticeboard and for the comments to be considered by the authority at a board meeting.

And he says until members have considered the responses in detail there should be no advance in ’structural works ... including the purchase of equipment in connection with implementation of the provisions within the proposed draft order’.

The board should be given a report with ’the full costing implications to the ratepayers of purchasing or hiring any necessary equipment, as well as any structural and installation costs, associated with implementing such a proposal of the offstreet parking policy.’

The authority said commissioners ’have listened to the representations made from traders and the public, and it has now been agreed that a flexible approach to the use of the square would better balance the interests of all its users.’

The authority said: ’The commissioners accept that their vision for the future of the town could have been communicated better, but hope that when people see what can be done with a public open space whilst remaining sympathetic to the town’s traders, the whole of Castletown will embrace it.’

Mr Ludford-Brooks said the square was just one in a series of issues. ’There was the debacle over the square, I’m against parking charges.’

He added: ’There have been other decisions made, private things, that concern me somewhat. I am exasperated by some of the decisions that have been made.’