Member's statement: Traffic Congestion: Ballymoney
Member's statement by Ms Sian Mulholland on .
- MLA
- Ms Sian Mulholland
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 21 September 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Traffic Congestion: Ballymoney
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5741781
Read the official Assembly record
Text
A real and increasing concern for people in Ballymoney relates to traffic congestion and whether our road infrastructure is keeping pace with the changing town. Anyone who tries to travel through Ballymoney at the wrong time of day knows exactly what I mean. At the bottom of Main Street, four roads — Main Street, Castle Street, Meeting House Street and Seymour Street — converge at one crossroads. At peak times, significant tailbacks develop, stretching back along all the roads that lead into the town. The issue is, however, about more than one junction. Over recent decades, Ballymoney has changed. We have seen considerable housing development to the south of the town, particularly along Bann Road, Bravallen Road and Finvoy Road. There has been further development along Charlotte Street, and more homes are being built on the Knock Road. The way in which people live and work has also changed massively. Ballymoney is increasingly part of a wider commuter belt, with many people regularly travelling into Belfast for work, while choosing to make their home in the town. Whilst that growth is really positive, our infrastructure needs to grow with it. Along with a local councillor, I, as a local MLA, have been raising that issue with the Department for Infrastructure since I came into this role, yet the situation has not improved. If anything, the pressure on the network has continued to worsen. We regularly raise concerns about congestion on Castle Street, at Gate End, on Milltown Road, on Ballybrakes Road and in that whole part of town. When those routes become congested, we see a knock-on impact on Kilraughts Road and Kirk Road. Increasingly, Ballymoney is being used by through traffic, despite parts of it simply not being designed for the volume of modern traffic that its roads now carry. For residents, it is not an abstract infrastructure debate. It means sitting in traffic while trying to get to work. It means that a short local journey takes so much longer than it should. It means that parents are stuck in congestion during the school run. It means concerns about rat-running and pedestrian safety, especially about whether children are able to safely walk or cycle to and from school. We hear those concerns from residents. That has to help with what happens next. We need something more than just an isolated intervention. My call to the Infrastructure Minister has been straightforward: commission a strategic review of Ballymoney's transport and road infrastructure. That review should be used to develop, fund and deliver real long-term solutions to the town's congestion, infrastructure pressures and safety concerns. It has to be about future-proofing the town, especially as development grows. I want the Minister to know that we need her to listen to residents, assess the network as a whole and plan for the growth that is already happening.
475 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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