Former government official laments 'lack of urgency' on schemes like York Street Interchange

​John Martin, a former senior government official, said that the status quo for Belfast’s motorway network is causing “considerable” cost increases for everyone involved – including ordinary consumers.

He was speaking after the News Letter learned this month that the massive roads project remains without any funding, with the Department for Infrastructure minister Liz Kimmins “taking time to consider the next steps for this key infrastructure project”.

Last week Wesley Johnston, author of a book all about the city’s road network, told the News Letter that the Climate Change Act 2022 “essentially makes it impossible” to build the York Street scheme.

It was a failure to adhere to the demands of the act which had killed off work on the A5 last year, via a ruling from Belfast’s High Court.

Unless the Department of Infrastructure can overturn that court ruling, the act likely dooms the York Street project too, Mr Johnston said, adding that for political reasons Sinn Fein will only accede to building it once the A5 is sorted.

The York Street scheme seeks to quell congestion in Northern Ireland’s capital by revamping the motorway junction at the north end of the city centre at the spot where the M2 (headed north), Westlink (headed south and west), and M3 (headed east) all converge.

Mr Martin, now an independent haulage consultant from Co Down, was until recently a senior figure in the industry lobby group the Road Haulage Association.

Before that he was head of enforcement at the DVA, and the chief transport enforcement officer at the Department for the Environment, among other senior government roles.

He told the News Letter that the York Street scheme is “in everybody’s interest”.

"Particularly at peak travelling times, the congestion tails back to at least Sprucefield,” he said.

"You can just consider the delay alone in relation to an HGV travelling along that road, it adds at least an extra half-an-hour to an hour onto a journey going through Belfast.

"Now you multiply that by the number of trucks travelling that route daily, it adds up to considerable cost – and that cost has to be paid by someone at the end of the day, and it ends up being the end consumer that normally covers the cost of congestion, as opposed to the haulier.

"It's a considerable inconvenience, a considerable cost, and adds considerable pollution to Belfast which is already seen as a highly-polluted city.

“So it’d be in everybody’s interest to see it being taken forward urgently.

"Dare I say it, it’s like a lot of things that sit at Stormont: there never seems to be any great urgency in getting these things that are important to Northern Ireland PLC taken forward.”

A DfI spokesperson said: “In October 2022 the then minister for infrastructure John O’Dowd published a Placemaking and Active Travel Review report for the York Street Interchange scheme and asked officials to take forward further work to refine the options within it.

"Officials completed this work and engaged with key stakeholders on the project, to gather their assessment of it.

"The findings have been presented to Minister Kimmins, and she is taking time to consider the next steps for this key infrastructure project.

"As the scheme is not funded through City and Growth deals and is not identified as an Executive Flagship project the minister has asked officials to consider possible alternative funding methods which could facilitate the scheme progression.”