The Ards and Down Area Plan 2015, which was adopted in 2009, foresees significant growth in housing in Newtownards. The land is divided into two "Phases". Phase 1 lands must be fully developed before Phase 2 lands are released. The bulk of the proposed housing land lies to the east of the town (Phase 1) and the north-east of the town (Phase 2). The largest area of land has the designation NS 19 and is shown on the map below. A condition of planning is that a distributor road must be built traversing the site, connecting Bowtown Road to Movilla Road. The route of this road will be up to the developer of the lands in question, but by way of illustration I have included below an example of a route that such a road might take. But bear in mind that this is pure conjecture. The NS 19 housing lands are shown in red, while a possible route of the road is shown as a blue line.

This scheme ties in to two other schemes that will, ultimately, lead to the creation of a partial "ring" road round the east of Newtownards from the A20 Portaferry Road in the south to the A21 Bangor Road dual-carriageway in the north. The two further components that would be needed to make this a reality are:

• The Bowtown Link Road (A20 Portaferry Road to Bowtown Road Link).
• The Movilla Road to Donaghadee Road and Bangor Road Link (which is a requirement of Phase 2 housing lands).

At the time of writing (August 2014) there is no sign of any work taking place in the NS 19 housing area, and therefore no sign of this road being built in the near future. The only reference to the scheme in recent years was at the "sod cutting" ceremony of the A20 Southern Distributor in April 2008 when 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."

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