With Covid-19 cases rising again, and Government lock-down regulations further restricting how businesses operate, it is more important than ever that local streets support social distancing so that people feel safe and can confidently go out and use local shops and services. Updated government guidance (at 23/9/2020) also reconfirms the recommendation that for local journeys you should "walk or cycle if you can" to "reduce pressure on public transport and the road network."
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In March 2023, Newcastle City Council announced that it would trial a new layout on Gosforth High Street using an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO), with a consultation to last the first six months of the eighteen month order. This blog is to share SPACE for Gosforth’s response to that consultation. Read more [...] 
In August we had a team walk along Gosforth High Street to see if we could come up with some ideas for what could be tried out fairly cheaply as part of the current trial arrangements. Below are 10 ideas, which we hope Newcastle City Council will consider. 
Gosforth High Street is our most important local destination in Gosforth. We want the shops to be successful and, as we set out in our previous blog, an important part of that is enabling people to get to and move around Gosforth High Street safely. 
Gosforth High Street has been designed like a bypass rather than a shopping destination. If you want a better, more ambitious, plan for Gosforth High Street, you need to respond to the Council's consultation ASAP. 
Newcastle City Council has proposed a new layout for Gosforth High Street. SPACE for Gosforth is very concerned this plan won't make the High Street any safer, doesn't do anything to improve the shopping environment and doesn't appear to be the result of any meaningful community engagement. This is the SPACE for Gosforth response. 
It is now over eighteen months since wands were installed on Gosforth High Street as part of the Council's response to Covid. This blog looks beyond the look and feel of the wands, focusing instead on their impact on traffic volumes, air pollution and road safety, and suggests specific actions that could be taken to help the High Street thrive in future. 
It's almost a year since the wands were installed on Gosforth High Street to assist social distancing and to make it easier to walk or cycle. In that time we've all had a chance to experience Gosforth High Street differently, and to see what an alternative layout could look like. 
Air quality in Newcastle and Gosforth remains poor and, despite a 2018 court order requiring government to ensure legal limits are met as soon as possible, the Government has still not confirmed that Newcastle can implement its Air Pollution Plan to rid Newcastle of illegal air pollution. Since 2010, when current regulations took effect, thousands of people have died and many more made ill because of the failure to address air pollution in Newcastle.
This blog summarises the official NO2 air 
Newcastle City Council has published its plans to give more space to customers visiting Gosforth High Street, to allow remaining shops to open safely and comply with the Government's physical distancing rules.