“That is where cities are moving, and we do not want to fall behind the times”
Belfast City Council is to formally propose to Stormont the pedestrianisation of Donegall Place and Castle Place, following the success of Fleadh.
In 2019, SDLP Councillors Gary McKeown and Dónal Lyons proposed a motion asking Stormont to consider city centre pedestrianisation, after the Primark fire.
At the August meeting of the council’s City Growth and Regeneration Committee on Wednesday, Councillor McKeown said that the motion should be revived, with a particular stress on Donegall Place and Castle Place, in the light of a groundswell of public feeling after the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann.
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The committee agreed to the proposal, as well as a Sinn Féin suggestion that representatives from the Stormont Department for Infrastructure give councillors an update on their plans. The decisions will have to be ratified at the full meeting of Belfast Council next week, where they are expected to pass.
Two weeks ago, just after the Fleadh, the Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins said she would forward a consultation including proposals for the expansion of pedestrianisation in Belfast city centre. No details have been given of the consultation, which is part of the Eastern Transport Plan, a strategic framework to guide transport policy and investment decisions up to 2035.
11 years have passed since the predecessor framework to the Eastern Transport Plan, the Belfast Metropolitan Transport Plan, expired in 2015. Local representatives have criticised the time it has taken for the ETP to be presented.
Councillor McKeown said at the City Hall meeting: “After the Primark fire, we saw the benefits of pedestrianisation, and it was the council’s view, and many people’s view, that we should use it as an opportunity to springboard to a place where more of the city is transformed into something that is pedestrian friendly.
“In my mind, that would look like something beyond just closing down streets, and more like using it as an opportunity to develop activities, animation, cafes, things that become attractions bringing people into the city. Not just for transactional purposes but to actually increase dwell time.”
He said: “At that time we were concerned that with the barriers being removed around Primark, we would revert back to form, and unfortunately that has been the case. There has been very little movement in trying to identify an opportunity to transform the city centre to something which is much more attractive for people, other than a route for buses to choke up the place with fumes.”
He said: “We saw during the Fleadh that there is a real demand to animate the city centre and populate it. None of us are under the impression that every day is going to be a Fleadh, but it has shown the opportunities that are there for some intelligent use of the city centre.
“What we want to do is to write to the Minister for Infrastructure. I know she is proposing to carry out a consultation, but there is a lack of specificity around that.
I am asking this committee to reiterate the point it made back in 2019.”
He proposed writing to Minister Liz Kimmins specifically requesting Donegall Place and Castle Place be included in a pedestrianisation programme, “and anywhere else in the periphery deemed appropriate” in collaboration with Belfast City Council, the Stormont Department for Communities and other partners. He said this would make the city centre “person focused and not vehicle focused.”
He said: “When you look at the core of other cities, you see Grafton Street pedestrianised in Dublin and, as it is soon to be, Oxford Street in London. That is where cities are moving, and we do not want to fall behind the times in what we are offering.
“This is an opportunity, and the Fleadh showed it, in sharp contrast to what it is normally like, to make this city centre something that actually works for people, rather than just providing a route for vehicles. But we have to push for that, and it is frustrating sometimes.
“It has to be done in a way that is appropriate, and facilitates access for deliveries and people with disabilities. If that can be done in other cities, there is no reason why it cannot be done here.”
Sinn Féin Councillor Ronan McLaughlin said: “Councillor McKeown is right that the Fleadh has shown increased pedestrianisation for the city centre is a good thing. But we also have to make it accessible.” He said it had to “be made as inclusive a space as possible.”
He added: “I would probably go further, because we do need to take the talk of pedestrianisation into action. The Minister has said she is looking to release the Eastern Transport Plan. We should ask that a further briefing is given to this committee in relation to proposals within the ETP.”
Alliance Councillor Fiona McAteer said: “We have to be very careful that people with mobility issues are getting in at the very beginning. As everyone will have seen on social media, people were complaining they would not be able to use Belfast city centre the way they used to.”
She said: “It is not going to be 24 hours/seven days a week. It could be one day a month, or “diet traffic” where lanes are reduced, there are lots of different things we could do. But we have to make sure we are talking to the right people from the beginning, so that no one feels left out.”
SDLP Councillor Dónal Lyons said: “I was lucky to go to Galway over the summer, where I was struck by the fact that on 5pm on a Friday evening, in the West End of Galway, you will see half a dozen forklifts come out with concrete blocks, and just pedestrianise an area for the weekend. People flood in and enjoy the streets.
“One fellow I was talking to, a wheelchair user, welcomed it because he didn’t have to be dodging traffic in medieval streets of cobblestones, a similar environment to our cathedral quarter. Of course there is a solution to all of these questions, and a further briefing on the Eastern Traffic Plan would be useful.”
DUP Councillor Sarah Bunting said: “We have to be really careful, and it has to be a really in-depth consultation, because we need to protect that access for people with disabilities, and we don’t want to be counter-productive by asking people to use public transport more and then restricting routes they are used to.”
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