Newcastle City Council has confirmed the outcome of its Gosforth High Street bus lane trial.
In a Twitter/X post featuring a long out-of-date picture of Gosforth High Street, the Council announced the decision, saying that they are "investing in your commute" by making the bus lane on Gosforth High Street permanent.
In doing so, the Council have acknowledged that the intention of the trial was never to support High Street businesses, nor to enable people to travel safely to the shops.
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SPACE for Gosforth has obtained a copy of Newcastle City Council's High Street Health Check report for Gosforth High Street from 2023. "Very heavy traffic", "narrow footpaths" and "not encouraging active travel" are all cited as weaknesses, while "Dominance of cars / through traffic" is listed as one of three threats to the centre. Read more [...] 
Newcastle City Council is seeking informal feedback on new proposals intended to “improve road safety, create better public transport links and encourage walking and cycling” in and around Gosforth High Street. You can provide feedback until 27 April 
Newcastle City Council is seeking feedback on new proposals intended to "improve road safety, create better public transport links and encourage walking and cycling" in and around Gosforth High Street. This is an informal consultation and a further formal consultation will be required before any of these plans are implemented.
You can see the Council's brochure describing the proposals and provide feedback until 27 April 
At 12 June 2024 City Council, Councillor Woodwark (Lib Dems, Gosforth Ward) asked a question about injuries recorded on Gosforth High Street since the Council's bus lane trial was installed. 
The Council haven't published a report on the Gosforth High Street ETRO consultation that finished in September 2023, so we thought we would have a look at what people said. 
According to the North East Road User Casualties dashboard nine people have been injured on Gosforth High Street between April 2023, when the bus lane trial was introduced, and the end of February 2024. The average for the same period in the previous ten years, 2014 to 2023, was 3.4. 
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.