Stormont has ‘done nothing for cyclists other than paint a couple of lines and put down a few cones’

Representatives from the Department For Infrastructure were told the Stormont cycling programme in the city amounted to painting “a couple of lines and putting down a few cones” and were accused of falling behind other cities in the UK and the Republic.

Council members grilled DFI Roads divisional roads manager Kevin Monaghan, and the department’s recently appointed walking and cycling champion Liz Loughran, at a special meeting of the council’s City Growth and Regeneration Committee this week.

Green Councillor Mal O’Hara said he and other members of the committee had “repeatedly expressed frustration” to the Department for Infrastructure on the transport strategy in the city.

He told the DFI representatives: “You have seen that from some of the correspondence we have sent to the department. There seems to be some real disconnect here from what the minister is saying, which aligns with the vision of us here at Belfast – in terms of connectivity, reorienting away from the private car and promoting more sustainable modes of transport. But that doesn’t seem to be filtering down.

“In April this year all party leaders here supported my call to move to road reallocation and it took three months for the minister to respond to us. It feels like we painted a couple of lines and put down a few cones.

“Other conurbations on these islands, and in western Europe, have transformed their cities, and I feel we are in danger of missing that opportunity. It seems we are not moving at the pace to suit our ambition.”

He referred to a recent decision by the department not to add extra pedestrian access at the Shankill junction as an example of a failure to address other forms of transport in the city.

He noted the draft Bicycle Strategy for the city had “an ambitious target that should have been more ambitious,” with the aim of 20 percent of all journeys under a mile to be taken on bicycle by 2025.

He said: “The Transport Survey for Northern Ireland says this figure has never been above 0.5 percent, and is therefore negligible. How are we realistically going to achieve that in the next five years?”

The draft strategy also aimed for 130 kilometres of cycle lanes in the city by 2025. In 2015 the city had 28 kilometres of protected bike lanes, green ways, and blue infrastructure.

Alliance councillor Eric Hanvey said the Stormont Bicycle Strategy had “done nothing in five years.” He said: “There is not even a trajectory towards it. It is flat. So it is difficult to hear now, in 2020 that you are doing your best, you will try better and move on, when we look back and hear what is being said historically. Things just don’t change.”

Cycling champion Liz Loughran replied: “No one is more frustrated than me.” She added: “The problem is resources – resources within my team, and allocation of resources elsewhere in the department. There is also the fact that not everybody is in the same place in terms of taking space away from vehicles. It is not universally popular.” She said success meant “winning the argument.”

Divisional Roads Manager Kevin Monaghan said: “We do find ourselves in a difficult resource position. I have a very very small team of people to take forward a cycling programme. It is very difficult to get it out the door and do the statutory consultations we are obliged to do as we take these schemes forward.”

He added: “Not everybody in this city is on board in terms of providing sustainable infrastructure. So what we have to do within this current regime is strike a balance between those people who do want sustainable infrastructure, and between those who want to keep the commercial traffic moving across the city. That is a very difficult balance to try and strike from my perspective.”

DUP Councillor David Brooks said: “I am glad to hear there is a degree of balance in the consultation on this. I think we are all committed to improving the infrastructure of sustainable travel.

“But we are in different places. I have to say I would not see the car as the villain. I want to speak to local businesses and residents and see what they want, give them a say. We have to keep the city moving.” He said the council was “not unanimous.”

Last week MLA’s at Stormont’s Infrastructure Committee were told by the charity Sustrans that £2 is spent per person in Northern Ireland on “active travel,” or walking and cycling . In the Republic of Ireland the equivalent active travel spending figure is £66 per head of population, £25 in Scotland, £10 in Wales and £7 in England.