The majority of residential development in Newtownards is situated on the east side of the town, on the far side from Belfast, the main source of employment. This means that motorists have to negotiate the town to go between the two. A southern distributor road connecting Portaferry Road via Comber Road to the Belfast road opened in July 2009. However, this still leaves a problem for those who live off the Bowtown Road (pronounced "Booton"), a heavily developed residential road that runs parallel to, but north of, Portaferry Road. Bowtown Road currently works to capacity, partly because the roads used to access it - particularly Greenwell Street - were not designed for the purpose.

The planners have now allocated large areas of land to the east of Newtownards for further housing development. However, they have stipulated that the provision of the Bowtown Road - Portaferry Road link road will be required before permission is given for these. The road essentially allows the new traffic that will be generated in east Newtownards to access the Southern Distributor Road. The map below (Google Maps) illustrates the planned location of the new road. Starting on the Portaferry Road at its junction with Old Shore Road (probably via a new roundabout) it will run north-east to the Bowtown Road. The Area Plan also indicates some localised realignments on the Bowtown Road.

As yet (Aug 2009) there are no plans to build the road, and with the downturn in the construction and property markets, it may not happen for some time yet. Having said that, at the "sod cutting" ceremony of the A20 Southern Distributor in April 2008 the "roads" minister said "With [the Southern Distributor] will come further road proposals as this A20 Southern Distributor is extended from the Portaferry Road to the Bowtown Road, to Movilla Road, to Donaghadee Road and in due course to the Bangor Road." This suggests that it will happen, in due course.

Map