Knockbreda road crossing saga continues as City Hall and Stormont officials clash

The tortured saga surrounding the creation of a road crossing beside Cherryvale Playing Fields in South Belfast is set to continue, after councillors and Stormont officials clashed at a meeting in City Hall.

At a special Belfast City Council committee meeting this week, councillors were at odds with representatives for the Department of Infrastructure Roads Division over the long-delayed request for a puffin crossing at Knockbreda Road.

Stormont is demanding another consultation on the matter, while council members argue there have already been several. Councillors argue objections from a handful of residents are holding up the process over car parking issues.

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It has been four years since Belfast councillors started the ball rolling for the creation of a new Knockbreda Road puffin crossing, which was in part agreed upon as a means to facilitate the reopening of an old gate at Cherryvale Playing Fields.

The crossing request by the council was made in 2021, agreed by DfI in 2022, and still nothing has been done. A request by a councillor to reopen the gates at the park, which have been closed for over 20 years, was made in 2017

At the council’s City Growth and Regeneration Committee, during an annual report presentation SDLP Councillor for Lisnasharragh Séamas de Faoite said: “It will come as no surprise I want to ask about the crossing at Knockbreda Road. The annual report says that is programmed in, but the response to the questions I submitted suggest work is delayed on that.

“I know there is a view (at DfI) that the council should have done another round of consultation, despite the fact it is probably the most consulted thing that we have done in years in Lisnasharragh.” He asked what he should tell residents on the matter.

A DfI Roads representative responded: “You are quite correct, we asked the council to carry out further consultation with the residents, because the location of the crossing had changed slightly. This didn’t find favour with the council, which was extremely disappointing, but I am afraid our view is that the consultation must take place.

“I am quite happy to take part in that with the council, and play my part in terms of any letter drops and communications that need to take place. But I need a commitment from the council that they are happy to carry that out in conjunction with ourselves.”

Councillor de Faoite said: “The report that has been submitted to us says the crossing on the Knockbreda Road is on the programmed list. I have correspondence from the department making it very clear that it is on the programmed list. So it should be happening, and the indication is that it would happen at the end of this financial year.

“But we are being told it is not going to happen unless what the council views as a superfluous consultation takes place.”

The DfI representative said: “That is not quite the case. Yes it is on the programme list, but we need consultation to be carried out with the residents. And that is the normal process that we undertake for any works. This one is slightly different because it was initiated by the council, and I think it is only right that the council plays their part in the consultation process. And I know they have done it to date, but we need to bottom this out and bring it to a conclusion.”

Councillor de Faoite replied: “That is ridiculous. The council has more than played its part at this stage. The department is dragging its feet on a crossing that is desperately needed, that has been promised for three if not four years. It has been delayed and delayed at every turn. There has been such a level of consultation that it has become ridiculous. I have to lodge my frustration.

“The council’s position, as agreed at committee, is that if we have to go to a further consultation we will go back to the 800 households that were consulted upon in relation to the opening of the gate. Because that is what this project has been about for the council overall.

“We believed in good faith that the department was working with us on it. This is yet another delay, after being told some months ago that things were progressing. What is the point of putting it on the programme list, and building people’s hopes up, to announce it won’t take place unless there is a further consultation, despite the fact it has been consulted on several times before. It is just madness.”

Another DfI Roads representative responded: “This is going to be particularly controversial for residents living in the vicinity of the crossing itself. We have got to make sure that they have their voices heard and we hear what changes this will make to the way they live.”

Councillor de Faoite said: “And the council has met with them on a number of occasions, well above the normal level of communication in relation to a proposal like this. Council officers have been subjected to abuse from some of those people, and the department is aware of how difficult that has been.

“On the flip side to that, of the 800 houses surveyed in relation to the opening of the gate, it had one of the highest return rates of any survey that the council has done, and had the support of a huge number of respondents.

“I get that there are issues around a very very small number of individual householders in relation to the potential loss of on-street car parking, but this is about road safety in an area where children have already been knocked down. Where children wanting to access the park are put at risk because of a dangerous road with high speed traffic and a busy junction and turn.

“People have been promised this for too long and as councillors we have been led up a merry path. Get on with it.”

Green Party Councillor for Lisnasharragh Brian Smyth said: “I am pretty furious here at the way this has been handled. How much more consultation do we need on this? 89.5 percent of residents supported this in terms of a gate and a crossing.

“It looks as if the DfI are placating a tiny minority of residents as an excuse to kick the can down the road here. There is overwhelming local community support, not just in terms of the surrounding streets, but right around the Rosetta/Wynchurch area. You (Dfi) are deliberately dragging this out. It is more protracted than the Good Friday Agreement. It is a pedestrian crossing.”

The saga has involved controversy over the reopening of the gate into the playing fields, with a tussle between the council and residents over antisocial behaviour. The gate was originally closed over problems with antisocial behaviour.

In 2022 elected members in a council committee approved that the local authority would spend £17,800 on the erection of fencing around the substation and rear of houses at Rosetta Park, resurfacing of the triangle of land outside the current gate, and additional bins.

In that year a public consultation by the council was held which saw nearly 90 percent of respondents agree to the measure. However, another consultation among those living closest to the gate found that 60 percent were against reopening the gate while 40 percent were in favour, with the main concern being an increase in antisocial behaviour.

A council committee agreed to open the gate while continuing conversations with nearby residents as to how to implement mitigation against potential antisocial behaviour.

The project was delayed in 2021 after a Sinn Féin motion insisted the gate could only be opened if a new pedestrian crossing was created across the road beside the gate. The Department for Infrastructure at Stormont agreed to create the pedestrian crossing before the gate was opened, but stated in a letter in 2022 that “residents living adjacent to the site of the proposed crossing have expressed considerable opposition to the proposal.”

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