The new Infrastructure Minister says the pedestrianisation of Market Square is ‘more finely balanced’ than she first realised.
Michelle Haywood says she is giving Castletown Commissioners time to plan what they’d like to do with the square by leaving it closed during the winter.
It’s been closed to vehicles since March and the authority wants to ‘create’ a pedestrian-friendly town centre that ‘prioritises’ safety, accessibility, and long-term sustainability.
Minister Haywood added that the businesses have sent her requests and suggestions about the square.
Finely Balanced
The DoI Minister told Emma Draper Local Democracy Reporter that when she “first came into the department, I was aware that this was an issue that landed on my desk and I’d had people messaging me after the public meeting had been held”.
The Minister said: “From my perspective, what I’m concerned about is whether we followed due process and I checked with the officers in my department that they had indeed gone through the correct process of evaluating the request from Castletown commissioners, and I asked them to double check with Castletown Commissioners that that was still what they intended to do, and that was still what they wanted to happen with the square.
“And so really I think this is one of respecting the local government for Castletown, who are obviously democratically elected to represent the people and it’s their request and my department’s role, is to just check that they’ve they’ve gone through the right steps and to issue the order.
“So that’s where I sit on it. It really is for the people of Castletown to provide their evidence and to to provide their comments to Castletown Commissioners because they are the ones that made this request and and it’s at their behest that we’ve issued the order.”
Temporary Restriction
The Minister said: “We only have, broadly two types of orders we can issue either a permanent traffic restriction order or a temporary one, and what we’ve used is the temporary order, across the last three summers was to allow Castletown Commissioners to develop their ideas for the square during the summer period.
“And we’ve seen that’s been, you know, incredibly successful, I’ve been to some events down there. I think I watched some of the TT down there and and all sorts of things.
“So we know that the square is being well used and and used. Yes, not used for for parking but being used for different purposes. So my thought on issuing a temporary restriction order at this time was to allow them the space to develop that again and to to show that concept work before I consider it for a permanent closure.”
5 Comments