Signage to alert drivers over harbour car park closure

The Mid and East Antrim Council-owned facility has been shut to accommodate travelling amusement park, Planet Fun.

"Signage has been put up and there is a company in the process of erecting signage on all through roads, so that they are in place before the event on March 30th," said a MEA spokesperson.

It comes after chair of the Carrickfergus Town Centre Partnership, Noel Williams, claimed a lack of signage at approach roads on Tuesday morning had caused delays when drivers reached the Irish Gate roundabout.Income from the event, meanwhile, "could go towards offsetting the charges on some of the other, paid car parks so that people who are travelling into the town to work and shop are not inconvenienced", he added.

Frank Shivers of Mi Casa, the events and hospitality group working with M&D Funfairs to bring the event to the town, suggested the attraction could significantly boost local footfall.

"We're expecting this to bring potentially 100,000 people into Carrickfergus over the two weeks," he claimed.

Mr Shivers added that while there was some "initial" disruption to traffic on Tuesday, signage was put in place that same evening.

"Some of these attractions have never been in Northern Ireland before, so this is a real positive for Carrickfergus," he added.

The fair will be operating from March 30 - April 14, with the car park closed until April 23. "The site needs to be free from the public in order to dismantle the funfair equipment safely. This is an outside date and the funfair organisers could be off site earlier," the council spokesperson added.