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Belfast
News: Belfast on the Move - Master Plan Today
starts a two month consultation on the new
plans for Belfast City Centre traffic
management, following its launch today, by
DRD Minister Conor Murphy. The
plan aims at substantially reducing
traffic in Belfast City Centre providing a
higher priority for public transport,
pedestrians and cyclists and follows news
that Belfast is the third most congested
city in the UK and seventh in Europe. Mr.
Murphy indicated that about 60% of the
30,000 vehicles using the city centre did
not need to, as they had other
destinations. The 'Belfast on the Move'
plans include about 2.6km of new bus
lanes, 20 new controlled pedestrian
crossing points and 1km of dedicated cycle
lanes. Belfast
News Editorial The
plans announced today could see Belfast
changed for ever and going by past
projects this change may not be for the
better. Since this Executive come to power
we have had promises but no delivery and
the projects so far, could not be heralded
as successful: the streets ahead project,
a visual disaster during tourist season,
the rapid transport proposals rejected by
the very constituents, the DRD claimed it
was geared to help and other projects
including those to create speed humps when
the money would better used removing the
dangerous potholes and flooding risks on
our roads. Given the time the Stormont
Executive has had charge of this matter we
are indeed in trouble if this is the best
they can do, this could not be called a
master plan, one would praise them for
their efforts if they were a 17 year old
'A' Level student handing in coursework,
but they're public servants spending tens
of millions of pounds of our money and
would do well to listen to both the
responses and the people who chose not to
respond to their consultation but will do
so in due course at the ballot box.
Last Updated: 30th
September 2010
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