The will be some exceptions to the general vehicle prohibition
A Stormont department has revealed plans regarding the upcoming pedestrianisation of one of Belfast city centre’s most popular streets.
After years of pressure on Stormont, the Department for Infrastructure informed Belfast Council it will go ahead with “experimental” plans for the pedestrianisation of Hill Street, in the Cathedral Quarter, as well as the introduction of a one-way traffic system along Gordon Street.
Hill Street has become the central cultural spine of Belfast’s nightlight over the past 20 years, and concerns continue to be expressed over the dangerous potential for accidents as revellers and vehicles side by side pass through the tight cobbled thoroughfare.
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In September the Belfast Council Planning Committee agreed to write to the Department of Infrastructure to request information on how the pedestrianisation of Hill Street would be managed, what signage would be in place and why the proposed pedestrianisation was not running from Talbot Street.
DfI replied in a letter revealed at the City Hall November Planning Committee: “The management of the scheme, once implemented, will be a collective partnership between (the) Department and the PSNI to ensure compliance with the pedestrianisation.
“There will be a variety of signs associated with the project. The signage and layout plans are available for viewing on the Department’s consultation website.
“The section of Hill Street which runs from Talbot Street to Gordon Street is not part of the proposed pedestrianisation zone due to access requirements being needed for the car parks within this length of Hill Street and in Gordon Street.”
On the department consultation webpage, further details of the plan are given. It says the scheme will prohibit all vehicles from using Hill Street for a distance of 120 metres from its junction with Gordon Street to its junction with Waring Street.
Vehicles are excepted from this prohibition in certain circumstances, including to permit loading and unloading of goods between 6am and 12 noon to premises along the affected length of road. The Order also introduces a one-way system on Gordon Street, Belfast, from its junction with Hill Street to Dunbar Street in an easterly direction.
The prohibition will not apply to a disabled person’s vehicle between the hours of 12 noon and 5pm, Monday to Friday, or a permitted taxi between those hours.
Other exceptions include a vehicle under the direction of a police officer, or under use of a medical practitioner in an emergency, at any time, and a vehicle used for the conveyance of goods to and from premises, between the hours of 6am and 12noon, where the goods “could not reasonably be conveyed to or from such premises otherwise than by means of a vehicle.”
Other exceptions involve building and repair works, removal of obstructions, sewerage works, gas and telecommunications works, or other statutory government works.
The consultation on the scheme is now closed.
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