Causeway Coast and Glens Council members’ concern over Ballymoney cycle lane congestion

Last November the then Infrastructure Minister, John O’Dowd, launched a public consultation on his department’s Active Travel Delivery Plan, which will see over 200km of high quality active travel infrastructure within both urban and rural settlements over the next 10 years.

The plan includes provision for six settlements within the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough – Ballycastle, Ballymoney, Coleraine, Limavady, Portrush, Portstewart – and the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) identified Milltown Road, with a route between Bann Meadows Junction to B62 Ballymena Road Junction, as a priority cycle lane route for Ballymoney.

At this month’s meeting of council’s Leisure and Development Committee meeting, DUP Councillor Mervyn Storey said that recently-completed public realm works in Ballymoney town centre was designed with improvements to Ballymoney’s traffic flow in mind, but the proposed lane will create a “dual carriageway for bicycles” along a narrow road, adding to traffic congestion.

“If this is the best that DfI came up with for Ballymoney they’d be better getting on their bike and keep riding,” he said, “because we’ve done all this work with the public realms but this document is proposing that we have a cycle route from the bottom of the Milltown up to the roundabout at Trinity [Church].

“If you travel into Ballymoney now from Milltown I guarantee you will sit in the traffic congestion for 10 or 15 minutes, but they’ll create a dual carriageway for bicycles along that narrow the road and add to the congestion.

“So I am not supportive of all the active travel plans, and looking at the traffic flows is the way that we need to go.”

Director of Leisure and Development, Pat Mulvenna, said the council’s Coast and Countryside team was formulating an official council response to the consultation, and suggested that members submit their individual responses as well.