{"id":103160,"date":"2026-08-14T01:55:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T01:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/103160\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T01:55:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T01:55:22","slug":"belfast-cars-risk-being-banned-from-major-uk-city-centre-under-new-plans-looking-for-permanent-solution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/103160\/","title":{"rendered":"Belfast: Cars risk being banned from major UK city centre under new plans looking for ‘permanent solution’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drivers have been warned that cars could be banned from major parts of Belfast city centre under plans being drawn up by Northern Ireland’s Infrastructure Minister. <\/p>\n

The proposals come after more than 1.6 million people visited Belfast during the eight-day Fleadh Cheoil na h\u00c9ireann music festival, when several streets were closed to traffic.<\/p>\n

Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins is now preparing to launch a public consultation on expanding pedestrianisation across the city centre.<\/p>\n

The plan could mirror London’s plans to pedestrianise Oxford Street, which has been backed by Mayor Sadiq Khan.<\/p>\n

In London, Sir Khan confirmed in March that the section of Oxford Street between Orchard Street and Great Portland Street is expected to become traffic-free by the end of summer. <\/p>\n

The scheme will close the road to private motor vehicles, buses, taxis and private hire vehicles, while emergency services will retain access. <\/p>\n

Belfast could now be heading in a similar direction. Ms Kimmins said the success of the Fleadh had shown what could happen when traffic restrictions were introduced in busy parts of the city.<\/p>\n

\"Fleadh<\/p>\n

The proposals will follow an official consultation, with drivers urged to share feedback <\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

PA\/GETTY<\/p>\n

She added: “The measures introduced for Fleadh Cheoil na h\u00c9ireann clearly demonstrated the benefits of pedestrianisation and have led to calls for a more permanent solution.<\/p>\n

“In the next few weeks, I will bring forward a consultation which includes proposals for the expansion of pedestrianisation in Belfast city centre.”<\/p>\n

Millions of people were recorded across Belfast during the festival, while public transport use also reached record levels.<\/p>\n

\"Fleadh<\/p>\n

The Fleadh festival saw millions of people travel to the city centre<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

PA<\/p>\n

The consultation will allow residents, businesses, motorists and other groups to comment before permanent restrictions are considered.<\/p>\n

“It is my ambition to reshape our town and city centres to put people first, creating more attractive, accessible and vibrant places while reducing car dependency,” Ms Kimmins said.<\/p>\n

The minister also stressed that accessibility would have to be considered and that she wanted to hear everyone’s views before a final decision was made.<\/p>\n

Exactly which roads could be affected has also not yet been confirmed, and there is no final decision on the extent of any permanent traffic restrictions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drivers have been warned that cars could be banned from major parts of Belfast city centre under plans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[380,453,17023,424,18,3930,165,16,5,6],"class_list":["post-103160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-across-the-uk","tag-cars","tag-driving-laws","tag-lifestyle","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-roads","tag-sgg","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117091376969492149","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}