Elections for Newcastle City Council are due to be held on 4 May 2023. This blog looks at what has happened since the local elections in 2022, and what local candidates and political parties are offering now.

It is important to distinguish between elections and consultations. Elections decide the party that will lead the Council and the policies they will implement. Consultations are to engage with residents on how (rather than if) those policies will be implemented.

We have looked at local election manifestos again as these are where the parties set out what they want to achieve and how they will prioritise resources to achieve it.  Litter picks and reporting potholes are fine but don’t really distinguish between candidates, and obviously you don’t need to be elected a Councillor to do these things.

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.

Labour’s 2022 Manifesto commitments

The Labour Party, with 58 of 70 Councillors, currently run Newcastle City Council. In 2022, the Labour Party manifesto committed to:

• Working with schools, parents and local communities to make walking and cycling to school safer for parents and children through safer streets and junctions as well as through awareness of air pollution.
• Working with partners to deliver the carbon zero action plan. This includes (action T10) development of a “City-wide Low Carbon Transport Vision”
• Reviewing the plans for the City Centre and Old Eldon Square.
• Introducing more Play Streets / Low Traffic Neighbourhoods / School Street pilots.

To deliver on these commitments Labour have:

• Trialled School Streets at Hotspur, Grange,  Chillingham Road and Ravenswood schools.
• Implemented trial low traffic neighbourhoods in Heaton, Jesmond east of Osborne Road and Five Admirals estate in Gosforth, and are consulting on proposals for West Fenham.
• Applied for new traffic enforcement powers to improve safety at the Christon Road / Gosforth High Street junction.
• Consulted on a permanent cycle route on Queen Victoria Road, next to the RVI and Newcastle University.
• Completed the Heaton Road cycle lane.
• Started work on the new Grey Street layout to widen the pavement and create space for pavement cafes.
• Received £3m funding for the West Road to address traffic safety issues.
• Produced a report, presented at October Cabinet, titled ‘Reframing Transport’ to ‘agree the basis of future interventions on our city’s highways network in neighbourhoods, on main corridors, and in the city centre – while also adopting higher standards for street design in future developments.’
• Held a Youth Climate Summit, the outcomes of which included asks from the youth participants to “reduce car travel by building more cycle lanes”, creating a ‘Green Zone’ in the city centre widening “bike routes and lanes within this zone and introduce more electric charging points” and “a review of Newcastle Airport’s masterplan in line with the city’s climate Net Zero targets.” The Council has yet to respond to these requests.

🚴🏻 We’re delighted to host National Active Travel Commissioner, Chris Boardman in Newcastle today. He popped down to see our School Street at Hotspur Primary, as well as learn about our plans to improve walking and cycling across the city, to create safer neighbourhoods. pic.twitter.com/ABQcp1YUlc

— NewcastleCityCouncil (@NewcastleCC) September 30, 2022

In addition, they have:

• Implemented the long-delayed City Centre Clean Air Zone, though delayed (again) from July 2022 to  30 January 2023. [air quality limits should have been met by 2010]
• Extended the Neuron e-Scooter hire scheme until May 2024.
• Installed new more robust cycle lane ‘defenders’ between Salters Road and Regent Centre.

Less positively, Labour introduced a new layout on Gosforth High Street removing protected space for walking and cycling and reducing the width of existing cycle lanes south of Elmfield Road, despite being advised by officers that this layout does not meet the LTN1/20 traffic safety standard the Council committed to both in the October ‘Reframing Transport’ report and at November full Council. We wrote about the new Gosforth High Street layout here.

Proposals to remove traffic from Blackett Street made by the Labour administration but before Cllr Kemp became Leader of the Council were also abandoned. This is the second time Labour have abandoned a city centre scheme designed to cut pollution, improve the environment and improve safety for people cycling. The other time was Percy Street in 2019. This severely inhibits people’s ability to cycle to and across the city centre.

Play Streets have not been progressed either and the Council website currently says applications for play streets are paused. Nor has the Council (to our knowledge) implemented any safer streets or junctions for children walking or cycling to school, other that School Streets in the immediate vicinity of the four schools where this has been trialled.

Labour’s 2023 local election manifesto includes:

• Making streets and neighbourhoods cleaner and greener.
• Help people stay healthy and active by investing in leisure, sport and getting out and about, with a new plan for walking and cycling.
• Supporting safe, active travel by improving walking/wheeling and cycling routes.
• Working with partners, Nexus and bus companies we will work to improve public transport, reducing traffic idling by raising awareness of the health impact and increasing enforcement
• Working to become a UNICEF Child friendly city.

The Council website also states that the next phase of Gosforth High Street will look at improvements for walking and cycling.

In Parklands ward, the Labour candidate says he supports more schemes like Salters Bridge and believes “we must act quickly to reduce CO2 levels in our city”.

Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats are the official opposition in Newcastle with 21 of 78 Councillors.

In the last year they proposed, and gained cross-party support for, a full Council motion on Gosforth High Street asking Council Cabinet (made up of Labour Councillors) to ensure proposals for Gosforth High Street:

• Support the development of Gosforth High Street as a thriving local destination with a diverse range of shops and services.
• Are designed to the highest possible safety standards for all road users, including LTN1/20.
• Enable low-carbon transport options to enable people travel to, along and across the High Street, cut pollution and support the city’s ambition to achieve net zero by 2030.
• Enhance the green infrastructure.
• Are delivered urgently to achieve these benefits as soon as possible, but not without meaningful engagement with local residents about the options and impacts of various schemes.

Labour Councillors, including the Council Cabinet, also supported this motion. Following the Council meeting officers drew up two options for Gosforth High Street, one of which complied with LTN1/20 as written in the motion. The Labour Council Cabinet chose the other option.

Linked to this, Lib Dem Councillors launched two petitions.

1. Save our Shops – to improve the shopping experience and “enhance Gosforth High Street as a healthy, green and thriving district shopping centre”.
2. Save our Streets – Safer, Greener, Cleaner Neighbourhoods “to counteract measures on Gosforth High Street” including “safe walking routes; cycle network; low traffic neighbourhoods; reduced emissions; clear traffic signage and diversions.”

Gosforth Ward Councillors also commissioned the new planters on Gosforth High Street at the junction with Woodbine Road and next to the St Nicholas Avenue traffic lights.

Newcastle Liberal Democrats have published their City Council Election May 2023 – Manifesto. This includes:

• Supporting “more walking, cycling and public transport to change people’s travel habits.” Reinvigorating “strategic network planning, funded by a workplace parking levy, to make it easier for people to make greener choices.”
• Creating a “holistic plan for joined up a public transport system that is fast, reliable and cheap; that makes low emissions possible for everyone, whether this is through low emission buses, better park and ride and cycle schemes, or safe and secure walking routes.”

More recently Newcastle Lib Dems have tweeted their support for school streets and all age and ability cycle lanes.

We’re supportive of the school streets initiative, and want to see quicker roll out: there’s clearly demand for it. Our call to move to reinvigorated strategic transport network planning would include all destinations, not just home-to-office.

— Newcastle Lib Dems 🔶 (@NewcastleLibDem) May 1, 2023

Conservatives

Newcastle Conservatives continue to campaign against Conservative Government policies to introduce Clean Air Zones and safer local streets, albeit that the Conservative Government only agreed to tackle illegal levels of pollution after being instructed to by the High Court following years of inaction.

Meanwhile the Conservative candidate for Gosforth Ward ran a petition, claiming that the orange wands on Gosforth High Street had slowed journey times and contributed to air pollution, neither of which turned out to be true. According to Council measurements, the “Covid” layout made minimal difference to journey times for motor vehicles and air pollution improved compared to previous years.

In March, the Conservative government announced a significant cut in funding for walking and cycling, all while continuing to pump billions of pounds into low-value high-emission road schemes. As a recent Sustrans petition pointed out, only 8p of every £100 spent on transport in England (0.08%) currently goes towards active travel infrastructure.

NEW: Significant cuts announced for walking and cycling

£710m was approved for active travel in the 2021 Spending Review.

£230m has been spent so far. Today’s announcement of £100m for the remaining two years, means a cut of £380m. https://t.co/Wf3bO2kkWC

— APPG for Cycling & Walking (@APPGCW) March 9, 2023

In previous years Newcastle Conservatives have not produced a manifesto or policy document for local elections. We have asked if they will produce a local election manifesto for 2023, and will share a link here if/when they confirm.

Conservative Party Chair Oliver Dowden MP did try cycling in Gosforth when he visited for the previous local elections, though only on a quiet side road and not on Gosforth High Street where safe space for cycling is desperately needed.

Then Conservative Party Chairman Oliver Dowden on a bike in Gosforth.

Link to video

Green Party

Newcastle Green Party has updated its Greenprint for Newcastle for the 2023 elections. This includes proposals to:

• Improve school transport (e.g. using walking school buses and widespread school streets).
• Free space for pop-up parks, and areas for children to play safely outside.
• Segregated, protected cycling infrastructure that is suitable for all ages.
• The introduction of workplace parking levies.
• Shifting the transport of goods to more sustainable methods, including the use of cargo bikes.
• Invest in more, safe cycle storage across the city.
• Create Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) and School Streets to encourage more parents and children to walk and cycle to and from school.
• Ensure that there are safe cycle routes both between popular student areas (Jesmond, Heaton, Sandyford and Arthur’s Hill) and from these student areas to the universities.

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

The post Local Elections 2023 appeared first on SPACE for Gosforth.

Elections for Newcastle City Council are due to be held on 2 May 2019.

As with last year we’re keen to find out how the candidates propose to address transport-related issues in our community. To do that we’ve come up with five statements or pledges and we have asked each of the candidates whether they support these or if not what they plan to do instead. These are the same as we used for 2018 and you can see candidate’s responses from the 2018 Local Elections here.

Below the candidate’s responses, which we’ll update as they are received, we have also written a bit of background about why we have chosen these particular statements.

Please keep checking back in advance of the elections on 2 May and if one of your candidates has not yet answered please do encourage them to do so. The very least we should expect from future local councillors is a willingness to engage with local residents and share their vision for the future of Gosforth.

THE SPACE FOR GOSFORTH PLEDGES

The five pledges we have asked candidates to support are:

1. Streets that are safe (and feel safe) for children to walk and cycle to school, to the shops or to the park.

2. Air pollution in Newcastle brought within legal limits as soon as possible.

3. Residential streets that are pleasant, safe and attractive places to live and where children can play out.

4. Rapid implementation of temporary changes to trial interventions to support these objectives.

5. Constructive community engagement about how to address the public health impacts of travel and the benefits of active travel.

Please see below for more on why we have chosen these pledges and what they mean in practice. We have updated this since last year to reflect recent updates on air pollution, what residents think and how trials work, and as part of the first pledge we are also asking candidates to support a bid for Streets for People to be expanded to Gosforth.

RESPONSES

Candidates are listed in the same order as on the Newcastle City Council local election website. Where a response is shown as a link, please click on the link for further details of the candidates response.

*** We have now contacted candidates and will update this table with responses as and when responses are received. See also below for a note on Air Pollution***

Dene and South Gosforth Ward

Fawdon and West Gosforth Ward

Gosforth Ward

Parklands Ward

Note on Air Pollution

The requirement set by Government, to be compliant with UK law, is that the Council produces a plan that will meet air quality limits in the shortest possible timescales.

The Council has set out in this ChronicleLive Article why some form of road charging will be required to achieve this. “Tyneside clean air tolls: Council bosses explain why we can’t avoid them” 

While we welcome ideas that will lead to a longer-term reduction in air pollution, these ideas in themselves are unlikely to be sufficient for the current planning process. If a candidate or party wishes to propose an approach without tolls as a viable alternative, they would have to demonstrate that approach would be likely to achieve compliance in the same timescales or quicker than the proposed Charging Clean Air Zone (CAZ). 

WHY HAVE WE CHOSEN THESE PLEDGES?

Pledge 1. Streets that are safe, and feel safe, for children to walk and cycle to school, to the shops or to the park.

Everyone should be able to travel safely whether they walk, cycle, use public transport or drive and should feel safe while they do so, but this isn’t currently the case in Gosforth. Often, traffic is fast and heavy, which is intimidating to many people.

In the SPACE for Gosforth Your Streets – Your Views survey, 88% of respondents supported safe walking and cycling routes to schools.

Children are less able to look out for themselves and are more likely to be injured or even killed in the event of a collision, so focusing on children, whether travelling independently or with an adult, is a good way to make Gosforth safer for everyone.

As part of this pledge we are asking candidates to support a bid for Streets for People to be expanded to Gosforth.

Pledge 2. Air pollution in Newcastle brought within legal limits as soon as possible.

In the last official figures from 2017, Gosforth High Street had the highest air pollution reading in Newcastle, substantially higher than the legal limit which should have been met by 2010.

SPACE for Gosforth has set out the many negative health impacts of air pollution including via this recent blog Which works best: Tolls or a Clean Air Zone? Latest estimates are that air pollution is responsible for 64,000 early deaths each year in the UK as well as a wide range of illnesses.

As a result of this Public Health crisis, Newcastle City Council has been mandated by DEFRA to produce a plan, which is currently open for consultation. DEFRA has also written to Newcastle City Council threatening legal action if there are any further delays to its plan.

This plan must meet legal limits in the shortest possible timescales. In practice this means some sort of road charging is inevitable. The Council can still determine who is charged and how much, as long as its plan is demonstrably likely to meet legal limits by 2021. It can also seek funding for other measures such as grants or loans to upgrade older vehicles.

Map showing air pollution levels in the City Centre in 2017

Pledge 3. Residential streets that are pleasant, safe and attractive places to live and where children can play out without fear of traffic.

Streets aren’t just about movement of traffic. They are also where we live, shop and socialise, and for children also where they are most likely to play outside near their homes.

In the SPACE for Gosforth Your Streets – Your Views survey, 85% of respondents supported reducing through traffic on residential streets.

Low-traffic neighbourhoods with streets that are safe for children are better for everyone with less noise, less danger and cleaner air.  It’s even been shown that people living on streets with less traffic have more friends and a better social life than those that live on streets with heavy traffic.

Newcastle City Council Road Hierarchy.

Pledge 4. Rapid implementation of temporary changes to trial interventions in support of these objectives.

If Pledges 1-3 are to mean anything there must be some meaningful and urgent action as a result. One option is to use trial interventions that can be implemented quickly to let residents experience changes before they are made permanent. If there are issues with the scheme, residents can provide feedback and action can be taken with local Councillors to resolve those issues.

As well as providing safety benefits earlier than might otherwise be achieved, this removes any guesswork as to what the effects might be and ensures that schemes can be evaluated on their actual merits.

Pledge 5. Constructive community engagement about how to address the public health impacts of travel and the benefits of active travel.

Making streets safer and cutting air pollution should be objectives that everyone supports, but it is still important that the council and local councillors engage with the community to ensure that residents understand what the issues are and have a chance to help solve those issues. Air pollution in particular is invisible and we’ve found that many people haven’t been aware that it has been, and continues to be, a problem in Gosforth. Nor are people generally aware of the very serious health impact of sedentary lifestyles which cost taxpayers billions of pounds every year and are responsible for even more early deaths than air pollution.

Likewise it is often challenging to put ourselves in others’ shoes, to understand for example what it is like to be a child on Gosforth’s streets, what it is like to be a parent cycling or walking with children (or even alone) on busy streets during the rush hour, or what it is like for residents or visitors with disabilities or conditions for whom travel is a challenge. It is only by having this broad engagement that we can ensure that Gosforth’s streets are safe and accessible for everyone.

These five pledges are based on SPACE for Gosforth’s objectives which you can see here. They don’t cover all the SPACE for Gosforth objectives but we welcome input from candidates about how they will go about meeting other aspects of those objectives to make streets in Gosforth more healthy, liveable, accessible and safe for everyone of all ages and abilities.

If you don’t live in Gosforth please feel free to ask your local candidates to support these pledges as well. We know very well that Gosforth isn’t the only area that suffers from these issues.

You can follow SPACE for Gosforth on Facebook or Twitter. If you support the SPACE for Gosforth objectives please do join us. Information about how to join SPACE for Gosforth is here.

The post Newcastle City Council Elections 2 May 2019 appeared first on SPACE for Gosforth.