Belfast City Council proposes pedestrianisation of Donegall Place and Castle Place following 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 last week, 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.

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 this 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.

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: “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."

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.”

Alliance Councillor Fiona McAteer said: “We have to be very careful that people with mobility issues are getting in at the very beginning. "

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.”