"Just look out the window": MLA challenges Stormont body after planning objections to Boyne Bridge demolition that's gridlocked Belfast traffic for two months dropped, amid claims that modelling says roads should be fine

Edwin Poots accused civil servants of engaging in “a desktop exercise” that resulted in them checking models of projected traffic disruption, instead looking at what has actually happened to the streets of the capital city over the past weeks.

The Department for Infrastructure (DfI) was previously highly critical of a planning application allowing Translink to shut Durham Street for around a year and demolish the bridge, which was filed as part of work connected to Belfast’s Grand Central Station.

In mid-October, officials branded the application unacceptable, stating Translink hadn’t shown that the work would not adversely affect city roads, and also hadn’t demonstrated that traffic mitigation measures would be fully in place before diggers moved in.

That verdict came in several days after Translink sealed off the area and got to work, meaning they were potentially operating without formal planning approval.

After the work began, city centre streets were plunged into chaos as traffic gummed up its centre for both private cars and public transport, while business on nearby Sandy Row was decimated.

Now officials have dropped their objections, saying they consider the planning application to be “robust” and “acceptable”.

The DfI is responsible for approving major developments, including Grand Central Station; it is also responsible for overseeing Translink.

Officials state they came to their new conclusion after “reviewing the modelling provided and summarised” in an analysis completed several months before construction work began.

But they explain little else about their reasoning for such a radical change of mind between mid-October and mid-December, a time in which Belfast city centre ground to a halt amid week after week of gridlock.

Edwin Poots argues that the modelling must be wrong, as in his view recent levels of traffic congestion are “something that has never been witnessed before”.

He told the BBC’s Stephen Nolan Show: “The DfI are saying the plan is good and the plan stands up to scrutiny.

"That’s their desktop exercise, but the reality is something different.

“Saying you have a plan that says there won’t be congestion when everybody can see that congestion is beyond belief.”

​Speaking to the News Letter, Mr Poots added that businesses in his constituency are losing money hand over fist as a direct result of the bridge closure.

"This supposedly “robust plan” in place to divert traffic away from Durham Street is clearly not working,” he said.

"If the traffic mitigations are not failing, open the Boyne Bridge and let road users get on with it while the DfI and Translink figure out a way forward that doesn’t destroy the business community in Belfast.

"Someone needs to take responsibility. The DUP are calling for robust action to be taken and taken now.”

Sandy Row community activist Billy Dickson, who has led protests against the Boyne Bridge closure, accused the DfI of switching positions on Translink’s plans on the back of “a box-ticking exercise”.

​“The [statement] from the DfI is full of ambiguity,” he said, “like something you would hear coming from the month of Sir Humphrey Appleby in the television series ‘Yes Minister’.

"The DfI is treating everyone as fools, if they think that the people of Belfast will be taken in by this; they have not seen any proposals or the results of any proposals that could be described as robust.

“The question has to be asked, who was consulted about the impact of demolishing the Boyne Bridge? I am sure the traders of Sandy Row and Grosvenor Road were not.

“This comes at a time when the Northern Ireland Assembly is closed down for the holidays, so there is no real opportunity to respond for our elected representatives.”

DfI officials were contacted and offered the chance to fully set out their reasoning for the abrupt change from the application being considered unacceptable two months ago yet robust now. They have yet to reply.