5.30 pm

When the Minister looks at that issue, will he ensure that the greenfield/brownfield mix is consistent with other cities of the size of Belfast, given that the strategic proposal and policy are long term and the consequences that will come to the streets of west Belfast, other streets in Belfast and elsewhere if the policy is not right? I suggest that the mix should be 30% greenfield to 70% brownfield. The provision of 10% for over-zoning should not be granted to developers. The suggestion of greenfield villages on the outskirts of Belfast - of which there are 16 or 17 in the air at the moment - should not be approved. Brownfield should become a key element in strategic planning and development policy over the next 10 to 15 years.

It is a multidimensional approach that might incorporate those proposals so that the immediate and the longer-term problem of traffic calming and traffic safety in west Belfast and elsewhere can be properly addressed.

Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle.

I welcome the chance to speak on this issue. Traffic calming is a serious issue in our communities, faced by young people, the elderly and the disabled. It is also an issue in combating car crime. Sometimes it is the only thing preventing a life-threatening situation. The provision of traffic-calming measures in west Belfast as a whole has been poor, but some small measures have been provided lately. However, I am concerned that it is being done in a piecemeal fashion, rather than areas being looked at as a whole.

Mr Maskey and Mr Attwood listed the criteria that the Department uses to provide traffic-calming measures. The criteria are based on statistics such as the clustering of accidents at a certain spot and requests from residents.

A number of years ago I was involved - and I see some officials here who were involved at that time - with the local community from Twinbrook and Poleglass in response to the tragic deaths of a number of children from my own area. The residents, community groups and local political leaders were on board, and we consulted everybody from the residents to the business community to the local Housing Executive and the health centre to see what traffic-calming measures were needed.

The area included three estates with over 30,000 residents, and at that stage there were no traffic-calming measures in place. We produced a traffic-calming scheme document that we thought was relevant to that community, because it was what the community thought was necessary to have an impact and try to reduce the senseless deaths. At one time, six or seven kids were killed in a two-and- a-half-year period.

We realised, following consultation with officials from the Department, that because we were talking about a wide area the schemes could not be implemented right away. We took on board that finance was not available for the full scheme to be implemented. We accepted that the schemes must be phased. We were concerned that what the residents had asked for, because of the background work that they had done, was not going to be followed through. We had heated meetings with departmental officials on a number of occasions, because we felt that we were only getting tins of paint when we wanted roundabouts.

We did fulfil several of the Department's criteria, and we were amazed to find that our fight was only beginning after we produced the traffic-calming scheme. We did not give up when we discovered that thousands of pounds had been spent on traffic-calming measures in south Belfast, even though the criteria had not been met. The residents there did not ask for the traffic-calming scheme. The Comptroller and Auditor General produced a report on traffic-calming measures, saying that the scheme was flawed and highlighting the inequalities in the Department's criteria.

On a positive note, there has been some movement on introducing traffic-calming schemes in some areas. However, I am concerned that the Department is still not looking at entire areas and is just putting in traffic-calming measures for the sake of it, without considering the impact of such measures. There was reference earlier to new housing developments such as Lagmore. Regardless of whether those are public or private schemes, they should not proceed unless traffic-calming measures are included. There are over 10,000 people in a new housing estate in Lagmore, but the Department has not adapted the roads. There is no long-term strategy for traffic calming.

Alex Maskey spoke about the level of car crime faced by the community in west Belfast. Residents want traffic-calming measures, because they believe that such schemes will have an impact not only on daily car crime, but on speeding in the area. We should get rid of the Department's criteria and have just one criterion - saving lives, not money. Go raibh maith agat.

We have heard much detail about west Belfast and the need for traffic calming there. However, this is a wider issue, which needs a broad strategy. The problem can be commuting rat runs, and Ms Ramsey has described how people drive through estates in order to take short cuts. More often, the basic problem is young men in small, fast cars; we are all familiar with that. It is not just a problem in west Belfast; it is a problem throughout the Province. The tyre marks caused by handbrake turns can be seen in any shopping centre and any other place that allows that sort of thing to happen. I was admiring some in Bangor shopping centre car park yesterday.

This is a social issue. The young men see it as a measure of their courage to drive cars quickly. It is a form of breast-beating; it is the "young-man-out-hunting" syndrome. It involves those who own small cars and those who steal cars, wiring them up and driving them away. Between Belfast and Bangor there are the "Wacky Races"; cars are stolen in various parts of Belfast, and there is then a competition to see how quickly the driver can get to Bangor and steal another car to get back. Some of the thieves end up in court, and the local paper covers such stories regularly. Others end up mashed into a wall around Holywood somewhere, and that is also a relatively frequent occurrence.

The aggressive use of cars is a symptom of a problem found in many areas - a complete lack of facilities. There is nothing for young people to do, so they take to cars. There is little co-ordination of youth provision, and there are few positive role models. In some areas of England efforts have been made to introduce young lads to rallying and stock car racing and teach them car mechanics. When I was that age, I was car mad, and I spent several years rallying and driving cars around in circles and overturning them. It is fairly normal behaviour, and it can be channelled. Unfortunately, in many cases, there is no place to channel it.

It is an increasing problem. Yes, traffic calming can have some impact locally, but I call on the Minister to get together with his Colleagues in social development, in health and in education to try to work out an overall strategy to deal with this problem.

If the question of young men and their cars and how we take that forward as a general social issue were dealt with, we might be able to ease up on what is undoubtedly a massive expense. If one area has it, then why can all areas not have it? I suspect that the Minister will tell us that there is not enough money to put it everywhere. We need to track it back in to the core problem, and, while traffic calming is important, we need a cross-departmental task force, perhaps, to examine the core issue.

I want to take the opportunity to outline the background to traffic calming as a concept, and what my Department has endeavoured to do in relation to it.

The objective of a traffic-calming scheme is to improve driver behaviour and to keep speed at a level in keeping with the surrounding urban street environment. Traffic calming can do a number of things such as reduce the number and severity of casualties resulting from road traffic accidents, discourage heavy vehicles and through traffic from using unsuitable routes, reduce speeding, improve the urban street environment and reduce community severance, promote a greater feeling of safety and promote cycling and walking.

West Belfast is included in the eastern division of my Department's Roads Service. For information, I can advise the House that the eastern division alone receives approximately 200 requests for traffic calming each year. In fact, I am advised that there are 10 times more applications for traffic calming in Northern Ireland than there are resources to implement them.

In order to make a fair comparison between the various requests and to identify those sites where the greatest benefit may be achieved from traffic calming, primarily in terms of accident reduction, an assessment procedure has been devised that takes into account the following factors, to which some Members have referred: a five-year accident history, details of which are obtained though police records; vehicle speeds; volume of cars and heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), calculated using detector equipment placed on the ground; environmental factors such as the width of footways and distance from the street to the house; the presence of schools or playgrounds in or near the streets; the presence of hospitals, clinics, homes or suchlike; and the presence of shops or public buildings.

Sites are assessed and points allocated under these headings, and a priority rating is assigned to each site. It is simply impossible to meet all of the many requests for traffic calming, given the limited funding that is available and the engineering staff resources that are needed for consultation on the various schemes. I have referred to this on various occasions in the House, and on Tuesday April 10 I was pleased to announce my traffic-calming initiative.

There are three key elements to the initiative, which I hope will go some way towards addressing these factors. The first is one that I hope the House will welcome. I have been able to announce a 30% increase in the funds available for traffic calming in the 2001-02 financial year. That is an increase of £400,000 from £1·4 million to £1·8 million.

The introduction of traffic-calming partnerships on a pilot basis is designed to give local communities more say in the development of schemes, which I hope will mean implementing schemes more quickly.