Dear James, thank you for taking the time to read the blog.

We’ve clarified, and I think you accepted, via the SPACE for Gosforth Facebook group that the issue relating to disappearing buses was a misreading of the blog and that the section correctly referred to in the blog as only having few buses is between Hollywood Avenue and Christon Road.

I’m also happy to clarify that your suggestions to ‘demonise drivers’, ‘close all roads’ and ‘walk or cycle all journeys’ regardless of distance or ability are also completely made up.

Many of the issues you refer to are complex, but also potentially solvable. They required constructive discussion and weighing up the options and alternatives. Hyperbole and scare stories help no one, and certainly not the people you profess to be concerned about.

We do share a concern for local businesses and possibly you missed our recent advertising campaign in support of local independent shops. There’s plenty of evidence of the benefits of improving shopping centres for walking and cycling and how that helps local businesses. If you don’t want to take our word for it you are welcome to search for yourself.

You also seem to be giving a view different to that provided by the government and media on when vaccines will be available. It would be useful if you could at least support that statement with a link or similar. Most reports I have seen suggest late 2021 at the earliest. In the absence of that, the government have proposed to make it easier for people to walk or cycle. We covered the well-evidenced reasons for this at the start of the article, including a link to the government’s instruction to local authorities. Many of these resaons will continue to be relevant even once a vaccine is found so I don’t believe there is a conflict between short and long-term planning as you suggest.