Debate contribution: Traffic Flow in Newtownards

Debate contribution by Mr John Stewart on 25 November 2025.

MLA

Mr John Stewart

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

25 November 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Adjournment

Heading

Traffic Flow in Newtownards

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5259334

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank the Member for Strangford for bringing the topic to the Chamber and for so eloquently setting out the position. My party colleague Mike Nesbitt, the Health Minister, had hoped to be here today, but he has a prior and unavoidable engagement with a constituent on a health matter. He sends his apologies. I will say a few words as Infrastructure spokesperson, if that is OK. Undoubtedly, many points have been made, but I am happy to share a few of his concerns and a few of mine. Newtownards is a successful market town that has grown substantially in recent years. It is not served by rail but is entirely dependent on the road network for residents of the town and those of the Ards peninsula, to which Newtownards acts as a gateway. I know from my colleagues in the area at council and Assembly level and from my experience that the traffic appears to have worsened significantly in the locality in recent years, partly due to the success of the town, which has won High Street of the Year on a number of occasions, and partly due to the growth in population, which is scheduled to continue, with Newtownards being the only significant area of housing growth in the Ards and North Down Borough Council area plan. There are particular issues at Messines Road and Comber Road, as has already been said, with substantial waits being a regular occurrence for drivers coming into the town from the Belfast and Comber directions. It affects commuters but also the residents of the many homes on the Comber Road who have to try to get into town during school runs, which all take much longer than would have been the case in the past. Members who spoke previously talked about two-hour waits at certain times of the year, and that is totally unacceptable. So far, the Department for Infrastructure appears unwilling to seriously review what can be done to alleviate the situation, which continues to get worse, year by year. We appeal to the Department today to take the matter seriously — we thank the Minister for coming along — and do all that it can to influence it. Other areas struggle due to the congestion in the town centre in general and in particular on the Bangor and Donaghadee Roads. A significant cause of many of the issues was the nature of the zoning in Newtownards in the 1980s and 1990s. The need for the town to have a ring road due to population and traffic growth was acknowledged and planned for. It provided the Government of the day with an opportunity to step in and build a ring road and charge each developer as they developed the housing area. Instead of that, it was left to each developer to build their own section of road as they built the homes. A number of developers, as Members will be aware, have done that and have built their sections to a high standard, but what good is just one section of the road if does not go anywhere? That is the scenario that Newtownards finds itself in, with an incomplete ring road with new homes being built on it year-on-year, but they are totally reliant on the same small infrastructure of the town centre. Sadly, as we are all aware, we cannot undo the errors of the past, but measures can be taken by the Minister and her Department in the interim. One such measure is the completion of the park-and-ride infrastructure at William Street and at the other locations that the proposer of the motion has already identified, which have been long promised but are, sadly, still undelivered. In fact, despite the Department having vested the site some years ago, it has yet to pay the council for the purchase of the site. I am not sure: maybe the Minister can update us as to where that is now. The new park-and-ride facility would have the potential to take so many cars off the road, supporting sustainable public transport and better linking Newtownards with the popular Glider network from Dundonald. The current inaction is simply not good enough, which is why I am happy to add my voice to that of my Ulster Unionist colleagues and Members in the Chamber who are vexed about this and rightly so. We call for the Department for Infrastructure to take the matter of congestion seriously, and the Minister should do all in her power to alleviate it.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:58 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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