Parking barrier issue at Muiravonside Country Park sees Falkirk Council lose cash

Meanwhile, residents who have paid for annual parking passes are up in arms as they say other motorists can often enter for free when the barriers are raised.

The issues was highlighted in the week when the local authority agreed the highest council tax increase in Scotland – 15.6 per cent – in a bid to balance its books.

Almost two years ago the council agreed to double the cost of parking at Muiravonside Country Park from £1 to £2 and install entry barriers.

At that time, councillors were told the cash would be valuable investment for the district’s only country park.

While a payment barrier was in place for the main car park at the centre of the park, visitors can also use the ‘woodland car park’ for free. This means that just 20 per cent of visitors paid the £1 fee for parking in 2021/21. With 98,751 cars visiting the park, just over £19,000 was raised in income.

But it appears the installation of the barriers at the 170 acre site hasn’t been without issue and the council admits it is working with the firm responsible to fix an “ongoing problem”.

However, it concedes that it is impacting the much-needed income to keep the park running.

One unhappy resident said they bought an annual pass at a cost of £104 as they are a regular visitor to the park to walk dogs.

They said: “The barriers took ages to be anywhere near ready to use and worked intermittently. I had to give the number plates of two cars so that the number plate recognition cameras would let me in and out. While the entry barrier manages this the exit barrier has never worked on number plate recognition and I was given a four number code to key in on exit.

"The barriers are frequently not working properly and many people have to use the call button to get help to exit the park.”

The dog walker said that at weekends the barriers are often permanently up with no-one paying.

They added: “This is completely crazy as the car parks are full every Saturday and Sunday. Everyone who uses the park during the week is being penalised by having to pay and those of us who have paid a lot of money for a pass are being ripped off.

“According the the ranger, the budget for the park is being cut this year. How then can it be financially sound to let everyone in free a the busiest times? The barriers are not fit for purpose.

“With the enormous hike in Falkirk council tax this seems to be yet another complete waste of money spent and a missed opportunity to make money at the weekend.”

Admitting there were issues, a Falkirk Council spokesperson said: "The issues we are experiencing relate to an intermittent fault with the payment system which requires a manual reset.

"During busy periods at the park, staff are busy with customers and not able to immediately respond to manually resetting the barrier payment system, so our only option of preventing long vehicle tailbacks is to leave the barriers up.

"We are working intensively with the company who installed the barriers to fix this ongoing problem but whilst the problem persists, we recognise it is impacting customers and as highlighted impacting the levels of income which directly contributes to the running of the park."

Muiravonside has recently undergone refurbishment work in several areas.

After being awarded £120,000 from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in 2023/24, the public was surveyed for priority for upgrades. this led to £60,000 being allocated to make improvements to the new play park, £40,000 for upgrades at Newparks Farm, and £20,000 for upgrades in the wider country park.

These have included the inclusion of a special sensory area within the new play park, new interpretation panels for the farm and River Avon Heritage Trail, a play tractor for the farm, planting native trees, new litter bins, the creation of a larger duck pond, and new fencing to replace damaged/rotten fences.