A Belfast councillor has said a Stormont department’s failure to pedestrianise a popular Belfast City Centre street for culture is “baffling”.
SDLP Councillor Carl Whyte said at a recent committee meeting at City Hall that a response from the Stormont Department for Infrastructure to continue to put pedestrianisation of Hill Street “on hold” included reasons that were “beyond belief”. He accused the department of falsely suggesting that there was a disagreement in the area over pedestrianisation.
Despite the response from the department, which has a new minister, Sinn Féin MLA Liz Kimmins, councillors vowed to maintain pressure on Stormont, and will write again to DfI demanding that the pedestrianisation of the street be included in the Executive’s Eastern Transport Plan.
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Hill Street has become the central cultural spine of Belfast’s nightlight over the past 20 years, and concerns continue to be expressed over the potential for accidents as revellers and vehicles pass side by side through the busy cobbled thoroughfare.
Last October councillors agreed to write to the former Minister for Infrastructure John O’Dowd to ask that he revisit his decision to put work on the pedestrianisation of Hill Street on hold. The council received a reply four months later under a new Minister.
Emma Stockman, Private Secretary to the Minister, wrote to the council: “An informal consultation on the proposal to pedestrianise Hill Street has been carried out for which the Department got nine replies. While most were in favour of the pedestrianisation scheme, the majority wanted to retain full vehicle access.
“However, this would not be in keeping with the objective of a pedestrianised area which is to remove traffic during certain periods for the general benefit of pedestrians. Therefore, this requires further engagement with individual businesses to explain this position and to attempt to negotiate a scheme which works for everyone.
“Unfortunately, due to the extensive time that this type of engagement requires, and the current significant pressures on staff as well as their involvement with high priority work such as the Belfast Grand Central Station, the Sydenham Bypass resurfacing scheme and the McKinstry Road/Derriaghy Road/The Cutts improvement scheme, it was necessary to put work on the Hill Street proposal on hold at present.
“Officials are keeping the position under review and would hope to follow up the informal consultation feedback in the coming months as staffing resource permits.”
At the February meeting of Belfast Council’s Strategic Policy and Resources Committee, Alliance Councillor Sam Nelson proposed the council write back to the Stormont department to ask that Hill Street be pedestrianised as part of the Eastern Transport Plan. The plan, which is currently being drawn up by the Department for Infrastructure, was previously known as the Belfast Metropolitan Transport Plan, and covers five council areas. The committee agreed.
SDLP Councillor Carl Whyte said at the meeting: “If we are writing back we need to clarify to the private secretary that a DfI consultation already took place, prior to the last collapse of the Executive. So why we need another consultation is hard to understand.
“For the project the budget is less than £100,000. There is a very confusing line in this letter. It says: 'While most are in favour of the pedestrianisation scheme, the majority wanted to retain full vehicle access.'
“That has been thrown in there to deliberately suggest there is not agreement. The actual truth here is that every single business in that whole area agrees with this project, provided there is delivery access before 11am, which is the same rule for pedestrianisation schemes anyway.
“This line is suggesting there is some kind of discord, and we need another consultation, after our informal consultation, when we already had a consultation before the collapse of Stormont.”
He said: “It is getting to the stage where it is baffling beyond belief.”
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