Businessman speaks out against pedestrian plans for Belfast city centre as veteran councillor says 'we must not get excited' after fleadh
A businessman in Belfast city centre says he is firmly against plans to permanently pedestrianise the city centre, and that others around him feel the same.
Colin Robinson was speaking after it was announced by infrastructure minister Liz Kimmins (Sinn Fein) that she is considering making the fleadh’s temporary traffic-free zone in the city centre permanent.
It is not clear if her plans would include every one of the streets that were closed during the fleadh; she has pledged to bring forward more detailed plans in the coming weeks.
Politicians from Alliance and the SDLP have indicated they are supportive of expanding the pedestrian area.
Mr Robinson runs Body Piercing By Catboy on Gresham Street in Smithfield, one of the areas that was closed to traffic during the fleadh.
Despite the mass influx of pedestrians to the city centre, he said business was actually down for him that week because his particular section had no entertainment and was “dead”.
"We are reliant on cars passing our studio, for the tattoos as well as the body piercing, and going in to Castle Court and parking in there,” he said.
"If they close this road down, we’re going to get no through traffic and no business.”
He said that the proposal is the work of “idiots”, with “bus drivers, taxi drivers, lorry drivers, disabled drivers” all in line to be hit.
“I just think it’s going to affect all the businesses in this area – not just me,” he said, and listed a number of surrounding business that “are going to suffer badly” and feel the same as him.
"Just reconsider it,” he urged.
"It’s not going to work.
"If it comes to it, I’ll go to court.
"I’ve a good friend who’s a solicitor and he’s against it as well, so I’ll go down that road no problem at all.
"No business in Belfast has been consulted about this – they’re just throwing it out there…
"I don’t get it at all.”
The longest-serving councillor in Belfast Jim Rodgers of the UUP (33 years on the council) said: "I’ve spoken to some of my council colleagues, and they’re of the same mind – there’s reservations.”
He added that “it’s easy to go off on a tangent” and that “we need to get it right… we need to not get excited and decide to go down a road that’s going to cost hundreds of thousands of pounds”.
The plans would push buses out of the city centre when “the vast majority of people” in the city are reliant on public transport, he said.
Glyn Roberts, chief executive of the business lobby group Retail NI (which has around 3,000 members around the Province), said: “I think it’s a conversation that’s definately worth having, and it’s been brought forward front and centre by the fleadh.
"In principle it’s a good idea, but we’ve issues like disability access, logistical issues like businesses being able to get supplies or deliveries through, and obviously we have the Translink routes…
"Those aren’t insurmountable problems.
"But I think the business comminity in the city centre needs to be an integral part of that discussion.”