Elections for Newcastle City Council are due to be held on Thursday 7 May 2026. This blog looks at what Labour have delivered since the last election in 2024, and what they and other political parties are promising in their local election manifestos. 

All Council seats are being contested meaning that you will be able to vote for three candidates. Labour, the Liberal Democrats, Reform and the Green Party are all standing three candidates in each of the four Gosforth Wards. The Conservatives are standing three candidates in Gosforth and one in other wards.  

We believe a similar arrangement will apply to the last all-out elections in 2018 where the candidate with the most votes will serve for four years, with the second and third place candidates serving shorter terms.

As a reminder, the Council is responsible for securing “the expeditious, convenient and safe movement of vehicular and other traffic (including pedestrians)” on roads it manages. Despite this, there have been 11 deaths, 214 serious injuries and 775 slight injuries on roads the Council is responsible for since the last local election in 2024. They are also responsible for achieving legal limits of air pollution “by the soonest date possible”.

While SPACE for Gosforth is focused on transport and the environment, manifestos can cover the full range of Council services including social care, schools, waste, planning and public health. We have included links below where we have them, so you can find what parties are proposing in these other areas.

What has Labour achieved?

Since 2024 there have been a number of consultations, not least the Movement Strategy. Actual implementation has been limited to completing schemes already underway prior to the last election. 

• New proposals for walking and cycling in Heaton were published in July 2024, though are still not implemented.
• In September 2024 the Council announced the bus lane on Gosforth High Street was to be made permanent.
• In October 2024 they consulted on the new Movement Strategy.
• In March 2025 they published walking and cycling proposals for Gosforth High Street, many of which have since been abandoned.
• In September 2025 they proposed camera enforcement at the no entry at the north end of Hyde Terrace. 
• As part of the Pilgrim Street development cycle lanes have been installed between Market Street and the Tyne Bridge. These lanes, announced in July 2023, do not yet link to John Dobson Street.
• They have also consulted on plans for cycle lanes and other improvements on Adelaide Terrace, Fenham Hall Drive and Jesmond Dene Road.

In our 2024 election blog we said “Overall, it is hard to avoid the impression that Newcastle Labour is walking backward on their claimed ambition of cleaner, greener streets.” While the Council has recently published some good proposals, our experience with Gosforth High Street means we have little confidence these will be turned into good implementations. We would love to be proved wrong.

2024 Local Election Manifestos

Labour Party

The Labour Party currently runs Newcastle City Council with a minority administration with 34 of 78 Councillors, down from 47 prior to the previous election largely due to the resignation of the former Labour leader Nick Kemp after allegations of bullying, and a number of his colleagues include the former Cabinet Member for transport. He has since been cleared of breaching the Council’s code of conduct.

Labour have published their “Priorities for 2026 and beyond” on their website, but this has nothing about transport despite it being a key function of the Council. It does say they are “tackling potholes”.

Given they have spent the best part of two years consulting on a new Movement Strategy, we had hoped they would have more to say about transport, but the priorities don’t even include a commitment to implement the Movement Strategy. 

In a hustings run by ChronicleLive, Councillor Kilgour, the council leader,  said ‘Labour had no plans to introduce further LTNs [low traffic neighbourhoods] and had “listened to communities”’, and that she “wanted to work through other solutions with communities to reduce emissions, in order to improve people’s health.”

In 2024 Labour’s local election manifesto contained what we thought was a typo, saying they will be “Continuing to act on the climate emergency to achieve our target of net zero ambitions by 2030.” We’re not so sure now.

Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats are currently the Council’s official opposition with 22 of 78 Councillors. 

The “The Liberal Democrats’ Real Plan for Change” published on their website, includes far more detail but spread out amongst the seven listed priorities.

Under the title “Environment and Leisure” they say:

• “Infrastructure should not lock people into any mode of transport.” and that they will “design the city for the way people want to live and travel, providing a range of options and facilitating choice.”
• Liberal Democrats will “end the siloed thinking that leads to housing developments without adequate transport links.” and “will ensure a “joined-up” approach between highways and planning to deliver high-standard cycling infrastructure alongside good quality bus routes, to ensure there are options alongside taking the car.”
• They will “work with neighbouring authorities to ensure traffic ingress doesn’t negatively impact Newcastle’s air quality, particularly on major routes like the Coast Road.” and
• “will invest in high-quality pedestrianisation, better lighting, and more public seating to ensure our town centres are safe, inclusive, and welcoming for everyone, day and night.”

Under the title “Economy, Jobs and Skills”

• Liberal Democrats will “end the siloed thinking of separate “Cycling,” “Bus,” and “Taxi” forums” and “will establish a single Transport Forum where all stakeholders sit in the same room to solve problems collaboratively.”
• They “will reimagine our City Centre parking, looking at best use of land outside of multi-storeys and explore using the top floors of multi-storey car parks to install solar panels, turning symbols of the old carbon economy into generators for the new one.”

In “Neighbourhoods and Communities”

• Liberal Democrats will “implement a survey to identify the deepest potholes and set a hard target: once reported, triggers will be met to fill them within 72 hours. We will promote the use of thermal repair equipment to ensure repairs are permanent, cutting the waste of repeat patches.” and
• They will “implement a prioritised pavement replacement program to prevent the hidden costs of injuries and ensure that every resident—regardless of mobility—can walk their city safely.”

In local leaflets in Gosforth they have said they want “the Council to prioritise local needs, not another unpopular redesign of the High Street. Residents want action on high traffic volumes, speeding, and dangers to pedestrians, across Gosforth.” 

Conservatives

They Conservatives have one Councillor in Gosforth Ward. 

On the Tyneside Conservatives website they list their priorities for Newcastle, which includes safer streets but doesn’t say whether that relates to road safety or crime.

In the hustings run by ChronicleLive, a Conservative spokesman said they would “take action to improve the state of roads and pavements.”

He also “urged the council to end what he called a “war on the motorist” by making it free for people to park in the city centre every evening and weekend, saying it was “wrong” to expect people in outlying communities like Dinnington to be able to rely on public transport.”

The write up doesn’t explain how parking charges constitute a “war” whereas similar charges to use a bus nor the very real injuries and illness caused by vehicle collisions and concentrated exhaust fumes do not.

In our blog Alive After 65 – Live Long with Clean Air we estimated that the previous “after 5” parking subsidy could have cost the Council £16.4m between 2014 and 2019, compared to if they had charged a market rate.

Green Party

The Green Party currently have four Councillors.

In line with national branding, the Green Party set out their “Manifesto for Hope for Newcastle“.

In their manifesto it says “Let’s fix Newcastle’s roads so people can get to where they need to be. We need long term, well planned resurfacing not endless patch ups. We also need to invest in the alternatives: streets that feel safe and welcoming on foot, day and night, bus priority at traffic signals, a comprehensive, convenient and connected cycle network. We will push for integrated public transport that is faster, cheaper, and more reliable than driving for most journeys. We will expand School Streets, with proper enforcement.”

Reform

Reform don’t appear to have a local website, and the national website says little about transport.  They currently have no Councillors in Newcastle.

In the ChronicleLive hustings, a Reform spokesman responding to the Conservative’s suggestion that parking should be free in the evening and at weekends, said that “despite Reform UK leader Nigel Farage saying last week that he would push his councillors to scrap town centre parking charges, admitted it was unrealistic to promise free parking across the board.”

He also “suggested that disabled parking in the city centre should be free and attacked Newcastle’s Clean Air Zone (CAZ) tolls for “penalising white van men” who do not have the option of taking public transport to work.”

As we set out in our most recent air quality update, the CAZ has been extremely effective at reducing air pollution in the city centre, which will benefit everyone including “white van men”.

No other parties or independents have put candidates forward for election in the four Gosforth Council wards.

More information about the Local Election and candidates can be found on the Council website.