In our last blog we shared how city transport planners are responding to COVID-19. In this blog we look at how people in Gosforth are using streets differently because of the pandemic and what Newcastle City Council could implement quickly in the short term to support that.
Although our own movements are as restricted as everyone else, we have been able to use the on-line traffic cameras from the Urban Observatory to see how people are using streets in certain locations.T Read more [...] Physical Distancing
In our last blog we shared how city transport planners are responding to COVID-19. In this blog we look at how people in Gosforth are using streets differently because of the pandemic and what Newcastle City Council could implement quickly in the short term to support that.
Although our own movements are as restricted as everyone else, we have been able to use the on-line traffic cameras from the Urban Observatory to see how people are using streets in certain locations.T Read more [...] 
Sunday 10 November 2019 was Remembrance Sunday. As is traditional, local cadets and scouts paraded down Gosforth High Street and into Gosforth Central Park for a short service and to observe a two-minute silence in memory of members of the armed forces that lost their lives in the two world wars and later conflicts.
The Remembrance Day Service in Gosforth Central Park offers an opportunity to reflect and mourn for the past, and it is also an opportunity to pause and to examine the present. 
In our recent Your Street - Your Views survey of Gosforth residents, poor air quality, traffic noise and dangerous driving were the 2nd, 3rd and 4th greatest issues for Gosforth High Street. All three can be made better through a reduction in the speed limit, which the Council are now proposing. 
In 2015, at SPACE for Gosforth's launch event we asked local residents, what do they like about the High Street and what could be improved? The Your Streets - Your Views survey gave us an opportunity to revisit this to see whether, three years later, these concerns were widely shared.
At the Your-Streets Your-Views survey feedback meeting we asked residents for ideas on how to build a better Gosforth. In particular: Opportunities for more trees and greenery.
Newcastle City Council have released the Air Quality Feasibility Study that will be used for its forthcoming consultation. Whatever the final plan that is chosen, it must by law meet air quality limits within the shortest possible timescale. The question for the consultation therefore is how should that be achieved. 
Newcastle City Council is after feedback about your experience of walking and cycling around Newcastle and how that experience could be improved. This is being done in support of the national Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, which outlines the Government’s ambition "to make cycling and walking a natural choice for shorter journeys, or as part of longer journeys by 2040". 
If you live in the former East or West Gosforth council wards or in Parklands ward, you should have had a survey leaflet through your door. Please tell your friends, family and neighbours about the survey and ask them to do it too. The more people who take part, the better the picture we will have of Gosforth as a whole. The closing date for the survey is Sunday 25 November. 
The Council has just released its Air Quality Annual Status Report 2018 and it is not looking good for Gosforth High Street. We had expected that the 2016 reading of 51μg/m3 for Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) was a one-off due to the roadworks at the junction with Salters Road, but in 2017 the figure had increased again to 59μg/m3.. Both are substantially higher than the legal maximum of 40μg/m3. 
2018 is the 10th anniversary of the Gosforth & Grainger Town Air Quality Management Areas. Will this local election year bring decisive action to clean our filthy air?