I was at a local meeting the other day to protest against plans to destroy
the Bloomfield walkway in east Belfast and use it as a bus route.
About 100 people attended and it was standing room only, which shows the
level of anger at this plan. Bloomfield is an area of terraced housing. A
lot of houses have no gardens at all. The walkway is one of very few areas
where children can play and to take it off them would be criminal.
There was rioting on the Albertbridge Road/Templemore Avenue for two nights
recently and I spoke to a number of local people who told me many of the
kids involved were rioting "just for something to do"!
The walkway lets kids explore in a healthy way — all the way to Comber if
they want. There are bats, foxes, badgers, frogs , kestrels, sparrowhawks,
herons and many other species of birds and butterflies.
This is what children need to develop a knowledge of nature and to learn
their place in the world. Many, many local people use the walkway for
exercising in a safe place — whether walking, jogging or cycling. It's also
popular with dog walkers. Many others use it to cycle to work. We need to
encourage this, not close it down or restrict it to an impractical narrow
lane. We need to keep this space for the wildlife, too. They need somewhere
to live as well. So many other inner city green spaces have already been
lost, such as the allotments that used to be off the Beersbridge Road.
I accept that we need more and better quality public transport, but it
should be on existing roads. We do not need more roads.
One lane of Belfast's Newtownards Road should be made into a permanent bus
lane with quality buses every five minutes so that people will know they
won't have to wait indefinitely and they will get a seat. If cars are
restricted to one lane, they will soon catch on that travelling by bus is
quicker.
I would urge everyone to write to their MLAs and MPs to protest at any move
to close the Bloomfield walkway.
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