Northern Area Plan 2016
Strategic Plan Framework: Transportation

An effective transport system is essential to meeting the needs of the Region. Continuing growth in road transport and its consequential environmental impacts in terms of, for example, air quality, tranquillity, and impact on landscapes and habitats, however, present a major challenge to the objective of sustainable development. Unmanaged traffic growth also has social and economic consequences, such as congestion and the effect on residents’ quality of environment, and the reduced attractiveness of town centres as retail and service destinations. Good communications are essential to the local economy and to attract inward investment. It is important that the Plan considers how the location and the nature of development affects the amount and nature of travel, and how the pattern of development is influenced by transport infrastructure and policies.

Roads through the Plan area link it with Northern Ireland’s two major urban areas of Belfast and Londonderry, the other gateways and hubs in Ireland and the main port and airport gateways to outside Ireland. The ports of Belfast, Londonderry and Larne, and the regional airports of Belfast International, Belfast City and City of Derry are all reasonably easily accessible using the road corridors and the trunk road links. In addition, within the Plan area, Ballycastle provides an established ferry link with Rathlin, with the prospect for the reinstatement of the seasonal, tourism orientated ferry link to Campbeltown in the west of Scotland.

The Plan area has an extensive network of secondary and minor rural roads, which provide vital links for the rural communities. There is also a comprehensive footpath system in all the urban areas, with a number of notable recreational footpaths particularly along the North Antrim coast. A dedicated cycle network, relating to the National Cycleway Network, has been established within the Plan area, and there are proposals to extend this.