If you weren't already aware the date to grant access - March 22nd was postponed.
Over the past few weeks the Roads Division have received
an increased number of complaints regarding the proposals to give motorcyclists access to selected bus lanes in Northern Ireland.
We understand that there are considerable
singular objections to the plans, which originally meant bikers in the Province would have been allowed in bus lanes from 22nd March.
The Roads Division have a duty to
investigate the validity of such complaints and had originally hoped that by April 26th some decision as to whether or not to advance with the 18 month trial period would have
been made.
However this has not been physically possible and they assure MAG NI at this stage the department are doing their best to address the issue.
We believe
initial complaints stemmed from harsh and somewhat unjustifiable comments from Tom McClelland (Northern Ireland Cycling Initiative) in the local press. Manus Bradley (Roads
Division) has gathered the relevant information and hopes that a decision can be reached by themselves or by their Director on the matter by mid May.
This will hopefully
be good news, and in time for the Province’s busiest calendar month of motorcycling events.
MAG NI is quietly confident that this issue will be resolved in our
favour; however, there is always the possibility that the proposals be thwarted altogether depending on the nature of the objections.
If this is the case I will need a bit
of back up from our counterparts on the mainland, e.g. perhaps details from local authorities who feel that the decision in your area to grant access to bus lanes was beneficial
etc etc actually anything positive will help.
We almost had this and can't let it slip away.
One positive note is that the Roads Division said that other than
queries from some bikers no other riders’ right group has been in touch.
We're working bloody hard on this and want it to be known that MAG delivered access to
NI bus lanes and not the BMF.
To be honest even the DUP have taken a back seat, suggesting it’s only a formality, so I have arranged to see them ASAP, I hope they
are right.
