Belfast News: Are the DRD treating you as Fools?

Following the launch of the Traffic 'Master Plan' by the the Department of Regional Development, the public have been encouraged to partake in a period of consultation, which ends on the 30th November 2010. The DRD has produced a document which at present is available in the Castle Court Centre, which we can only describe as a 'Fools Guide', but is it a 'Fools Guide' or is the DRD 'treating you as a fool'?

The document briefly outlines the core proposals but having considered its contents, the view of Simply Belfast, is that, it is a bias overview of the changes, representing to the public only those factors which 'sell the scheme', rather than a balanced representation of the changes. It may even be that some changes are implied but not actually stated. For example:

1. How many on-street car parking spaces are to be lost & what streets are affected?
2. Are the buses either side of the City Hall to be displaced, if so where to?
3. Why create a pedestrian only zone knowing they attract more crime?
4. Are the changes a 'slice by slice' approach to introducing a congestion charge?
5. Are there plans afoot to increase the price of on-street parking?

These are just a few unanswered questions, there are many more. This project is geared at reducing by dissuasion, the traffic i.e. cars, coming into Belfast. Given the DRD's comments that 30,000 cars use the city centre streets, what is there target reduction, using this scheme and much more importantly how did they calculate the figures being quoted. How were the car numbers calculated and how did they calculate that 60% is through traffic, for like many people using Belfast, I am aware that most car parks in the city are full with on-street car-parking fully subscribed, with drivers going round the street attempting to get a space - how many times are these counted?      

The Claim is that this plan will give higher priority to users of public transport, pedestrians and cyclists, yet there is no measures outlined encouraging people to walk to work, cycle into the city or outlining new public transport measures. Does the City Centre need double bus lanes, when most buses pass through unrestricted and where their new plans do not include expansion to services?

This scheme is a nonsense, will encourage people to use out of town centres and other local cities. In a eco-friendly world, you free up restrictions to movement, you do not create them, this scheme appears to be nothing more, than town planners attempting to apply their degrees to a non-problem. There are many ideas to improve Belfast Traffic, but these Master Minds have failed at every turn and the sad thing about this scheme is that they will simply impose it, should you fail to give them an electoral shock!

Last Updated: 8th October 2010