Business, retail and hospitality leaders have said that the pre-Christmas pause on roadworks in Belfast should be introduced earlier than planned, after a Stormont department said it would begin on November 25.
There has been major traffic disruption and delays to bus services recently due to heavy congestion across the city centre and main routes in and out of it.
In the aftermath of last week’s severe congestion, Hospitality Ulster and Retail NI jointly called for the return of a “pre-Christmas moratorium” on roadworks in Belfast city centre and the Sydenham Bypass after construction work was blamed.
The Department for Infrastructure (DfI) said it would be suspending non-essential works on key Belfast routes from November 25, as it had done in previous years.
But the two lobby groups said it should happen sooner, arguing that it threatened trade at the busiest time of the year.
In a joint statement, Colin Neill, chief executive of Hospitality Ulster and Glyn Roberts, chief executive of Retail NI welcomed the moratorium on city centre roadworks coming into effect on November 25.
“However, we would encourage the Department for Infrastructure to bring the beginning of the moratorium forward to mid-November as the Christmas trading period will have already begun and been disrupted should roadworks continue until the 25th,” they said.
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“While we appreciate that the moratorium is being implemented and, as stated previously, support the end goal of the roadworks, part of the moratorium’s remit is to limit the damage done to the city centre economy in the run up to Christmas.
“In this vein, we call for the moratorium to include all of our city and town centres. We would stress that the shifting of the moratorium’s start date back by at least one week and the inclusion of all cities and towns would mean that the city and town centre economies could fully reap the benefits of the season.”
Martina Connolly — chief executive of Belfast One, a business improvement district with over 700 members in the city centre — also welcomed the moratorium. But she added: “We believe this needs to take effect immediately to fully protect the critical Christmas trading period for our retailers and hospitality businesses.”
She also urged the authorities to consider further measures, including temporary taxi access to bus lanes, increased bus services, and stricter enforcement of traffic rules at ‘key junctions’, particularly yellow boxes.