Debate contribution: Traffic Flow in Newtownards

Debate contribution by Ms Kellie Armstrong on 25 November 2025.

MLA

Ms Kellie Armstrong

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

25 November 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Adjournment

Heading

Traffic Flow in Newtownards

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5259316

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. My apologies to yourself and to Miss McIlveen for being late. Unfortunately, a group of children were talking to me about roads and public transport before I came here. I cannot disagree with anything that Miss McIlveen said. At times, the traffic around Newtownards has to be seen to be believed. I get stuck most evenings on my way home, regardless of whether I leave here late or whether I leave my office at an earlier time, particularly around the Portaferry Road. There is absolutely no consideration given to how many roundabouts are blocked by static cars that are trying to move into the town. The route to Bangor was not conceived appropriately. There is an issue with the amount of damage that the congestion is doing to businesses. My office is on South Street, one of the busier streets in Newtownards, and retailers in that area have commented on the difficulty that shoppers experience at times in getting in and out of the town, so something has to be done. When was the last time that Newtownards traffic was reviewed effectively? I have said on several occasions that I welcome park-and-rides. The planned park-and-ride in Newtownards is in the wrong place. It will increase traffic in the centre of Newtownards, which will decimate some of the routes through the town. There will be such an amount of traffic trying to use that park-and-ride, which is in the town centre, that we will see difficulties for retailers in the area. To be honest, we will be at a worse standstill when it opens. It should have been on the Scrabo High School site but we lost that site, so it is in the town instead of being outside the town. There is a junction close by that will not be able to cope with the amount of traffic. We have already heard from Miss McIlveen about how traffic flow has impacted on other parts of the town. There needs to be a review of the one-way system, and consideration given to the amount of pedestrianisation in the town. Is there another way of doing that to improve the flow through and around Newtownards and make it a more effective town for everyone who wants to use it? There absolutely should be more public transport options so that we can take people out of cars. If the first park-and-ride that you hit when travelling from Portaferry or Comber is in Dundonald, you are encouraging cars to go that far. The delay in the roll-out of park-and-rides is unbelievable: we need the next phase of park-and-rides to be realised. If cars do not have to go into Newtownards to use the park-and-ride there, that will take away some of the rural traffic. The one thing that I do not agree with is the idea of a bridge from Portaferry to Strangford because of the connectivity implications and the destructive impact that it would have on both villages. The villages would end overnight because the bridge would not be where the ferry currently crosses. We all know that taking a road away from those villages means that they will die on the vine as time moves on. I agree that we need to look at the roll-out of park-and-rides and why it is taking so long. There have been issues with the old Ards leisure centre site in Newtownards, with asbestos a consideration there. The planning permission for that site has progressed, so what is taking so long? That is a valuable piece of land and should have been used for much-needed social housing, but if it is going to be used for a park-and-ride, make it a park-and-ride, because when that is being planned, the road network in the area will need to be redesigned. If up to 400 or 500 cars are going to be going there every morning, on top of the issues that Miss McIlveen raised, we will be in trouble in Newtownards. Newtownards is a town that is growing. Comber is growing. There are villages down the Ards peninsula that are growing. A heck of a lot of people are transferring from those areas through Newtownards to Bangor or Belfast. What we are finding, however, are the standstills. I can leave my office and, in less than a mile, be sitting in a traffic jam for 45 minutes to move another mile. It is unbelievable. We need to give the issue consideration, Minister. I have a great working relationship with your team in the area. They work extremely hard and are flexible in their approach. Some of the ways in which they have managed to fund road repairs have been excellent, and I welcome them, but I wish that a town planner would have a look at the transport in Newtownards and the way that it works or, rather, does not work. The new roundabouts that were put in from Messines Road out to Portaferry have acted more as a blockage than an enabler of traffic. There are more people now driving through Newtownards to avoid the Messines Road, so it has not worked. The new road that Miss McIlveen talked about, which will connect the Movilla Road to the Portaferry Road, will, to be honest, have Nimbyism written all over it, because people who are buying houses there are not expecting the traffic flow that will hit the area, so I expect there to be a lot of objections. We therefore need to step in now and show leadership on the issue before it gets worse.

934 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:57 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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