Archived press release

Transport strategy: Robinson fails to grasp the nettle

3 July 2002

Friends of the Earth warned that the transport strategy unveiled today by Regional Development Minister Peter Robinson MP, MLA would not halt Northern Ireland's soaring traffic volumes. Speaking on the day the ten year plan was unveiled, Transport Campaigner Lisa Fagan said:

"Traffic volumes here grew by more than 5 per cent during the last year for which figures are available and, if traffic continues to grow at this rate, there will be a 63 per cent increase during the lifetime of this strategy. The strategy does not set out from the beginning to tackle traffic growth: the Minister has failed to grasp the nettle."

Friends of the Earth welcomed the new investment in public transport but insisted that not enough of the available resources had been devoted to buses and trains:

"Belfast City Council is recommending that 50 per cent of new transport spending be allocated to public transport. Britain's ten year transport plan allocates 59 per cent of resources to public transport. Friends of the Earth believes that the public transport share of total spend ought to be in the region of 65 per cent. But this strategy devotes just 35 per cent of resources to public transport."

She explained that the strategy is, in effect, a bid for £1.37 billion over ten years, in addition to the £2.13 billion which the Department can safely expect to receive, assuming existing funding levels remain unchanged:

"Even more worrying than the funding split between roads and public transport is the way in which the 'safe' money has been claimed overwhelmingly for roads, leaving much of the hoped-for new investment in public transport dependent on finance which has still to be the secured. The Department has been canny enough to make sure, that in the event of a funding shortfall, it is the public transport investment which will suffer. This is evidence, if more were needed, that the old-fashioned 'roads first' approach lives on in the Department."

And she pointed to the region's particularly low levels of car ownership:

"30 per cent of households in Northern Ireland do not own a car and in Belfast the figure is 54 per cent. Even in rural areas, 24 per cent of people do not drive. It is imperative that the 'transport poverty' experienced by those who neither have a car nor an adequate public transport system be eliminated".

Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland
7 Donegall Street Place
BELFAST
BT1 2FN
Tel: 028 9023 3488
Fax: 028 9024 7556
Email: foe-ni@foe.co.uk.

Published by Friends of the Earth Trust