Debate contribution: Traffic Flow in Newtownards

Debate contribution by Ms Liz Kimmins on 25 November 2025.

MLA

Ms Liz Kimmins

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

25 November 2025

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Adjournment

Heading

Traffic Flow in Newtownards

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5259340

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

I too thank Miss McIlveen for bringing the debate to the House. I thank all Members who contributed for their honesty. It is obvious that you are all working at the coalface in Newtownards. Although I live so far away from it, I worked in Newtownards for a while. I did my first social work placement there. Hearing of the town — the roads and the links in and out of it — has led to me reminisce. I often travelled that road from Comber to Newtownards. That was many years ago, but I am familiar with it, and that has been helpful in trying to get to grips with the issues that have been raised. I have listened to the issues raised by representatives of the constituency, and I hear those concerns. Officials have looked at this in the past, but it is evident that there is a rationale for us to look at it again. I have asked officials to closely monitor many of the issues that you raised, but I am happy for a meeting to take place with you, Michelle, to look at that in greater detail. A huge number of suggestions, challenges and issues have been identified here today, and I do not intend to go through every one of them. It is important, however, that we hear them. It reflects how the community feels, how local businesses feel and the real challenges that they face. I imagine that, as Ms Armstrong outlined, the Christmas period will have an impact on congestion. Investing in our roads is critical not only to ensuring the safe movement of people and goods but to allowing the growth or our economy, which is important. As others have said, towns such as Newtownards may be thriving, but we need to ensure that we enable the conditions for them to continue to do so. There is no doubt that there are funding challenges. The Member who secured the debate has been a Minister and will understand that. At this point, as Ministers, we have to take decisions that prioritise road safety and other critical things. There are so many competing priorities. I am not using that as an excuse: it is fair to say that the majority of Members here will recognise that that is a reality. Their colleagues who sit round the Executive table face similar challenges. However, I will never shirk my responsibilities. I will continue to do what I have been doing, which is to work with people, other MLAs and communities to find solutions and do the best that we can with what we have. Members have described clearly the impact of traffic congestion and how it can build up significantly in many of the areas that have been identified, particularly at peak times, whether it is in the morning, when people are going to and from work and school, or, likewise, in the evening. Ms Armstrong mentioned the importance of looking at some form of transport planning. That work is under way across all 11 councils, particularly in conjunction with the local development plans that councils are working on. My Department has the overarching transport strategy, for which the consultation closed at the end of September. We are also working on the transport plans for specific council areas, and Ards and North Down is one of those that are included. That is an important opportunity for all the issues to be fed in and for us to try to identify solutions. The solutions do not relate purely to roads; it is about providing other options that mean that people do not have to use their cars, be that active travel or park-and-ride. I really welcome the positive feedback on the Newtownards park-and-ride. I appreciate that we need to get further information on the other one, I am happy to respond to Members in writing on that. It is also about public transport. I am having those conversations with officials all the time. We are ambitious about what we want to achieve with transport planning. However, we have to ensure that, if we take steps to discourage the use of the private car, we have the options in place to enable people to make other choices, be it walking, wheeling, cycling or using our public transport. We are constantly grappling with those competing priorities. I am an eternal optimist, however, and I believe that none of that is unachievable. Local input and knowledge is invaluable. It is key that my officials and I hear what the realities of that are for people who live with it every day and that we can look at solutions. We can potentially take that away and come back or meet on-site, as I have suggested, on the back of your request, Michelle. With regard to some of the more specific points, Harry Harvey mentioned the national speed limit on a specific road. Apologies if I have missed that, but we are reviewing speed limits overall. I am looking at that. I have raised the issue of national speed limits, particularly on roads that are near schools in our rural communities, for many years, as well as looking at permanent 20 mph zones in more urban areas as well. I have made loads of notes here because many specific issues were raised. The bridge to Portaferry is not one that I am familiar with. There is obviously a difference of opinion on that, so we will leave that for another time. It is really good to have a debate in this tone, where we are not saying, "These are all the problems. Go away and sort them". Members are putting forward suggestions for what could work and are saying, "Let us test it, look at it and see whether it is an option". Miss McIlveen mentioned looking at things such as temporary traffic lights and other options, particularly at the roundabouts. I can maybe look at that again with officials to see whether there are opportunities. Movilla Road is another one that I am not familiar with specifically. I am happy to look at it with regard to parking on either side of the road. I am due to see the business case on the Newtownards park-and-ride, potentially in spring 2026. Translink is working on that. Hopefully, by then, I will know more about that and will be able to give a further update on where that is. I am generalising over a lot of things, but I am trying to remember some of the key points and what I can come back on. I am happy to take some of it away. There is a lot there that we need to look at. If I can come back on some key issues or we can arrange site meetings, I am happy to do that through you, Michelle. I want the message from here to be this: I hear you. I am listening to the issues, and I am keen to find solutions and see how we can improve things. It might not be what we think at the outset, but the Department is looking at lots of things consistently not just for Newtownards but across the board in all our transport planning and how we have to adapt to the future.

I was talking this morning about the estate that I am from: Barcroft in Newry. When I was growing up, I remember there being one car per house or maybe even one car per every two houses in that estate. When I pick up my kids in the evenings, I see that there are now perhaps three cars per house; you cannot get parked in that very small council estate. Society has changed drastically since a lot of the transport planning and local development plans for access to towns and cities across the North were originally done. We have to ask whether we should continue to build more roads to adapt to the ever-increasing number of cars, or whether we should provide people with options to enable them to get out of their cars and travel differently. There is a lot to work on in that regard. The key thing is that we are actively working on those things and developing a plan, which, I know, needs to be followed by action. Hopefully, through continued engagement with you all, we can do that in the not-too-distant future. I thank everybody for the nature of the debate. It has been really good. I offer my commitment to working with you all to find solutions. Hopefully, we will be able to alleviate some of the issues that have been identified this evening.

1,457 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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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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