A proposal for more parking in Laxey has been rejected by the Department of Infrastructure.

Local residents have been campaigning ’for years’ for more parking to be implemented in the village.

A proposal was put forward by Daphne Caine, MHK for Garff, on behalf of local residents for an area next to the tramline in Lower Rencell Hill to be used for vehicles.

It was rejected by the DoI for a number of reasons.

These included: that the surface was ballasted (which required staff to wear safety shoes and hold a personal track safety certificate before walking on it), the DoI would need to fence the tramway to prevent accidental incursion on the operating envelope, the emergency access to the depot would have to be guaranteed to be clear as that’s where the overhead lines team are, and HGVs would need to be able to turn around when drums of wire and other large items were being delivered.

The rejection concluded that it would be an inappropriate place for the public to have access to.

Mrs Caine met with the DoI chief engineer Andy Cowie at Lower Rencell Hill to discuss the issue.

The MHK said: ’It is a shame that the parking suggestion couldn’t be progressed at this time.

’I had a very informative on-site meeting with Andy Cowie and I appreciate there are difficulties that would need to be overcome to enable access to the Manx Electric Railway (MER) land to relieve the parking pressure in the area.’

She explained the DoI was facilitating disc parking on New Road.

’[This] will hopefully relieve some of the pressure for businesses during the day.

’Work is also continuing with various members of the community, DoI and Garff Commissioners to improve road safety, parking provision and create safer routes to schools in the constituency.’

A local resident, who wished to remain anonymous, was appalled by the decision not to use the space for parking.

They said: ’Parking is a nightmare, it’s very frustrating.

’From a business point of view, it’s really terrible - we’ve been campaigning for this for years.’

The local, who walks to and from work due to the current parking situation, felt the location would have been ideal.

They continued: ’It just seemed like an obvious place to look at but the arguments they’ve come back with are ridiculous.’