Station Road – May 2022

Residents have reported high volumes of motor traffic and delays on Station Road, with this often being attributed to the effect of closing a number of minor roads to through traffic in 2020. In this blog we take another look at local traffic count data to see what is going on.

Closing local bridges – Recap

In May 2022, we looked at traffic levels on Station Road after local bridges were closed to through traffic. We found that traffic levels on Station Road did not increase after local bridges were closed to traffic, and in fact stayed at a similar level to 2018, as shown in the graph below.

Traffic Volumes on Station Road, measured 30m west of Bowsden Terrace – Data Extract May 2022

Traffic levels remained similar right up to March 2022, the latest month we had data for at the time, 19 months from when the bridges were closed in August 2020 and 12 months from when schools reopened (and traffic fully returned to normal) following Covid lockdowns in March 2021.

What happened then?

Now we have another year of data and we can see traffic levels on Station Road did increase after April 2022, by up to 10% in some months. This is shown on the red line (2022) and higher blue line (2023) in the graph below.

Traffic Volumes on Station Road, measured 30m west of Bowsden Terrace – Data Extract May 2023

In November 2022, traffic levels on Station Road were extremely high, averaging 18,525 vehicles per day over the month.

Why did traffic increase?

If the bridges were to have an effect it would most likely have been immediately after they were closed to traffic i.e. August/September 2020, and not at some random time over two years later, and they wouldn’t explain the unusually high traffic levels in November 2022.

One explanation could be overall growth in traffic, and consequently growth in traffic jams, aided by the Government’s fuel duty freeze. Since the start of the freeze in 2010 up to 2019, miles driven in Newcastle increased by nearly 7%, but again this would not explain the unusually high traffic levels in November 2022.

There was a local traffic ‘event’ in the autumn of 2022 – emergency roadworks for gas repairs on Jesmond Dene Road. These works lasted from May to December 2022, with the main works (and greatest disruption) between 24 October and 2 December.

A189 Jesmond Dene Road, reports of failed temp traffic signals at the junction of Moorfield for the works being carried out by @NGNgas #Newcastle pic.twitter.com/9roIBPVP0k

— North East Live Traffic (@NELiveTraffic) November 29, 2022

Between 4 – 14 November Jesmond Dene Road was closed to all traffic at the junction with Moorfield.

🚧Jesmond Dene Road (A189) will be closed to all traffic at the junction of Moorfield from midnight (4 Nov) for up to 10 days for emergency repairs by @NGNgas

✅ Access remains open for people on foot. Diversions will be in place. pic.twitter.com/rYaS5Wjp0K

— NewcastleCityCouncil (@NewcastleCC) November 4, 2022

We reported at the time that Google Live Traffic was showing heavy traffic on The Grove and, to a lesser extent, Ilford Road. The maps in the tweets below also show slow moving traffic on Station Road.

Google Live Traffic shows lots of driving on residential streets. We need low traffic neighbourhoods so that main road traffic stays on the main road network. pic.twitter.com/rWFzwKLdS8

— space for gosforth (@space4gosforth) November 7, 2022

Residents of The Grove also reported traffic was very busy, as well as higher noise levels and a collision as a result of the additional traffic.

Comment on Gosforth Traffic Facebook 11 November 2022

Traffic using The Grove as an alternative route would have been picked up by the Station Road traffic counter, explaining the increase in traffic levels between May and December. We can see from weekly traffic counts that the most traffic on Station Road was the week where Jesmond Dene Road was closed completely (7 November).

Displaced traffic

We also have traffic volumes for Haddricks Mill Road for the same period. The graph below shows that, from the start of roadworks in May 2022, there is a corresponding reduction in traffic levels on Haddricks Mill Road.

This may come as a surprise to residents of Haddricks Mill Road, for whom this whole period (apart from when the road was fully closed) was marked by continual traffic jams due to the road works.

This is to be expected though, as a temporary reduction in road capacity caused by temporary traffic lights will cause both traffic jams and a reduction in traffic volumes on the affected roads as some people take alternative routes.

Total gridlock (and CO2 galore) outside our homes EVERY morning in #SouthGosforth. I guess it makes a change from the dangerous speeding… @NewcastleCC any plans to address?? This isn’t sustainable. pic.twitter.com/iwiPrByUf6

— Ciara Small (@SmallWorldNE) May 24, 2022

This contrasts with permanent or longer-term road capacity reductions where it has been found that “significant reductions in overall traffic levels can occur, with people making a far wider range of behavioural responses than has traditionally been assumed“. This is why traffic changes are often trialled over a 6-18 month period, and why other long-term local road closures have shown no increase in traffic volumes on parallel roads.

Following completion of the road works, traffic counts also show that Haddricks Mill Road traffic levels didn’t immediately return to where they were, taking until March 2022 to return to previous levels.

Conclusion

• Traffic levels did increase on Station Road in 2022, up to about 10%, with a corresponding decrease on Haddricks Mill Road. The most likely reason for this was the road works on Jesmond Dene Road.
• Some of the traffic that would have used Haddricks Mill Road rerouted to use Station Road via The Grove. Roads east of Stoneyhurst Bridge remained largely traffic-free.
• This contrasts starkly with previous local road closures. No additional traffic was recorded on parallel routes following Stoneyhurst Road, Castle Farm Road or Killingworth Road closures. This may be because the roadworks on Jesmond Dene Road were announced with very short notice, and were only for a short period, so people weren’t able to or didn’t feel the need to adjust.
• Traffic using The Grove instead of Jesmond Dene Road will have created additional delay for people travelling by car/bus from Gosforth High Street to Haddricks Mill.
• Where there is short-term disruption, traffic will divert via whatever routes are available. While these routes are open to through-traffic, neither residents nor people wishing to walk or cycle away from heavy traffic can rely on them remaining low-traffic routes.
• Traffic levels on Station Road and Haddricks Mill Road appear to be returning to closer to historical (still very busy) levels since March 2023, however while motoring is relatively cheap compared to public transport and there is a lack of safe cycling routes, traffic levels are likely to continue to rise. Higher levels of traffic contribute to increased pollution, carbon emissions and danger for other road users, much more than localised congestion.

Reference – Other Traffic Reports

• Temporary traffic lights due to gas main work and roadworks on A189 Jesmond Dene Road at Moorfield – May 2022.
• Temporary traffic lights due to gas main work on A189 Matthew Bank at Jesmond Dene Road – September 2022
• Temporary traffic lights due to gas main work on A189 Jesmond Dene Road at Moorfield –  December 2022

The post Station Road traffic went up – what happened? appeared first on SPACE for Gosforth.

The Blue House and Jesmond Dene Road Working group met on Monday 13th March. The Agenda for the seventh meeting included:

1. Feedback from group members
2. Principal options for the Blue House Junction
3. Proposals for Jesmond Dene Road and Ilford Road
4. Construction materials for new paths on the Town Moor

The notes from the meeting have been uploaded to the working group’s website, the main points of which are summarised below along with some additional context.

If you have any further thoughts, comments or questions about Blue House or Jesmond Dene Road it’s not too late to say. You can add comments to this article or contact us via the SPACE for Gosforth Facebook page, Twitter or Email.

BLUE HOUSE

The two options presented for the Blue House junction were both roundabouts, the main difference between them being the number of vehicle lanes. The larger roundabout with three vehicle lanes would  require the demolition of the Blue House and removal of a small number of trees within its garden. Trees marked in red on the plans are already scheduled for removal because they are dead or dying.

The Council is no longer considering the turbo-roundabout option proposed for discussion at previous meetings.

These are the two options.

Blue House – Three lane roundabout proposal

Blue House – Two lane roundabout proposal

In addition to the demolition of the Blue House itself, the three lane roundabout would also have a higher capacity for motor vehicles and would, as a result, induce additional traffic. For anyone using the junction in a car this wouldn’t necessarily mean the traffic is any better and in fact, from a safety perspective, it could be worse because the roundabout geometry would not be as effective in slowing traffic out of peak hours. Nor would it be certain to have any economic impact according to a study of road schemes by the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

In one of our earliest posts on the Blue House roundabout we showed how traffic has recently reduced along routes leading to the Blue House roundabout. We’ve also looked at some of the organisations that were intended to benefit from higher vehicle capacity and found many of them committed to reducing how much they travel.

• Newcastle University has a Sustainable Campus Travel initiative which has reduced the number of staff single occupancy car journeys to the University between 2004 and 2014 from 40% to 16%.
• The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has published a document called ‘Our Commitment to a Sustainable Future‘, which sets out that ‘the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, as the largest employer in the city region, has a key role to play in reducing carbon emissions and supporting local people to adapt to climate change.‘
• HMRC, a major employer at the Longbenton ‘Ministry’ site in its HMRC and VOA Sustainability Report 2015 to 2016 says that ‘Between 2010 and 2016, we took almost 18,000 fewer domestic flights, saw a 22% shift in travel from road to rail, and replaced face-to-face meetings with more than one and a quarter million audio conference calls.‘

Work still to be completed includes a detailed modelling of likely traffic flow and the consideration of bus priority measures. Both will be required before a final design can be proposed.

While there are already a large number of bus services running north-south across the junction (See Blue House Measures of Success Part 2 | People Movement) there are no bus services running down Grandstand Road and onwards to Haddricks Mill.

WALKING AND CYCLING PATHS

For both roundabout options the walking and cycling routes are planned to be separate from each other and both separate from the traffic as is best practice on a busy road.

It is important that walking, cycling and public transport are attractive travel options to avoid the alternative scenario where a much larger roundabout would be required.

The current GNR shared path

Discussion centred around whether the new paths should be for walking with the current paths retained for cycling or the other way round. Considerations include:

• Access to/from bus stops from the walking path for people walking.
• The need for lighting and how to make sure people feel safe when using the paths at night.
• Whether the cycling (or walking path) is shared use or dedicated.
• Ensuring the cycling paths are suitable for families and children as well as being attractive for faster cyclists so they will choose to use them in preference to the road.
• Whether any new paths are located within the Moor or between the trees and, if the latter, will there be an issue with leaf fall.
• Construction material and how to avoid damage to existing trees. The Council shared details for a low-maintenance porous paving product made from recycled tyres that could be laid on top of the existing surface.
• Quality of the surface and how to place signs and lampposts.
• Opportunities to alleviate flooding risks.

A further option, not discussed at the meeting, would be to reallocate existing road space for walking / cycling paths.

The following pictures show where the new paths would go if these plans are implemented. Please click on any of the images if you want to see a larger version.

Coming from Gosforth the path would go alongside the edge of the Little Moor. The picture on the left is taken facing north towards Gosforth.

When the path gets to Blue House it would cut across the corner with a link to the proposed new road crossing through an existing gap between the trees.

Looking from Jesmond Dene Road, this shows the gap in the trees where the path from Gosforth would lead to the crossing over Jesmond Dene Road.

Once over Jesmond Dene Road the path would continue south on the other side of the trees from the Great North Road.

Going east towards Haddricks Mill Road and Jesmond the path would go along the wide avenue between the trees along to Ilford Road.

Going west, the path would go behind the Blue House and then along Grandstand Road routed between the trees.

ROAD CROSSINGS

The road crossings are unchanged from previous proposals. Members of the working group have previously asked the Council to consider:

1. Making the new two-phase crossing on Jesmond Dene Road single phase so the road can be crossed in one go rather than having to wait in the middle of the traffic.
2. Installing a crossing on Grandstand Road so people have safe access to the Town Moor and its walking paths.

JESMOND DENE ROAD and ILFORD ROAD

The design for Jesmond Dene Road had been updated following feedback from the previous working group meeting. The main changes are:

• A new Toucan crossing next to Friday Field’s cut where Jesmond Dene Road meets Haddricks Mill Road to allow residents of Beatty Avenue and Sturdee Gardens to cross safely to Jesmond Dene and to the cut through to Jesmond.
• Traffic-free two-way cycle lanes on the west side of Ilford Road and on the north side of Jesmond Dene Road between Moorfield and Haddricks Mill Road, but with no changes to Moorfield itself.
• A four way junction (possibly a mini-roundabout) between Moorfield and Ilford Road to slow traffic travelling north – south.
• Narrowing Moorfield on the section immediately west of Ilford Road to slow traffic approaching the same junction from the west.
• The traffic lights where Moorfield meets Jesmond Dene Road have been moved closer to Moorfield.

This latest iteration does not address wider safety issues caused by high volumes of through traffic using Moorfield and Ilford Road, including on Moorfield east where, based on these plans, children over 11 who wanted to cycle would have to use the road with this traffic. Previous speed measurements on Ilford Road, from 2014 suggests that 85% of drivers exceed the 20mph speed limit on this road and that during morning rush hour / school drop off there is one vehicle roughly every 14 seconds. Details for other local streets including Moorfield can be found on our blog Important dates for East Gosforth.

FEEDBACK

While feedback was provided by a number of groups, the main point of discussion was the survey carried out by Jesmond Residents Association. This was answered by 243 people and asked what would enable you to make journeys walking, cycling or via public transport rather than by car.

The top results were:

These add weight to the changes already discussed to make walking and cycling safer and more convenient, and to retain bus priority measures such as the bus lanes on the Great North Road.

These results are also broadly the same as those obtained in the national British social attitudes survey: 2013 which recorded that:

It is also clear from the British Social Attitudes survey that fear of traffic is a major barrier to people taking up cycling. It found that 61% of all respondents felt it is too dangerous for them to cycle on the roads including 69% of women and 76% of those aged 65 and over.

The Jesmond Residents’ survey also asked what measures would people support to promote walking, cycling or public transport. The following measures were supported by a majority of those who responded.

Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Working Group is scheduled for the end of April, by which time the Council should have completed its vehicle modelling and have created some more detailed plans for Blue House and Jesmond Dene Road.

If you have any further thoughts, comments or questions about Blue House or Jesmond Dene Road it’s not too late to say. You can add comments to this article or contact us via Facebook, Twitter or Email.

The post Blue House and Jesmond Dene Road Working Group | Meeting #7 appeared first on SPACE for Gosforth.

In this post we look at the Environmental Impact Assessment Screening & Scoping Report (“the EIASSR”) lodged as part of the planning documents for the original plans for the Blue House roundabout and Jesmond Dene Road.  The EIASSR’s aim was to identify the different types of environmental assessments that would have been needed had those plans gone ahead.

Despite the plans not going ahead, SPACE for Gosforth wanted to look at the EIASSR as it contains a substantial amount of information about the ecosystem of the Town Moor and its relationship with the surrounding communities.  In short it gives us an insight into the many different reasons why Newcastle Town Moor is not only special to the surrounding communities, but an iconic location known throughout the North East of England and beyond. This information remains important as alternative plans for the Blue House roundabout and Jesmond Dene Road are formulated.

THE EIASSR also contains information about the background and scope of the previous plans –  again important information for new plans. As the previous plans were so comprehensively rejected, one question relating to them was whether it was the plans themselves that were flawed, or the objectives that the plans aimed to fulfil?  And are there any issues not included in the EIASSR that ought to be looked at when alternatives are created?

What is the EIASSR and who wrote it?

The EIASSR was lodged with Planning Application documents for the Blue House Roundabout and was prepared for Newcastle City Council by AECOM.  Its purpose was to identify which environmental reports would be needed to assess the impact of the plans for Blue House and Jesmond Dene Road.  The proposals for Haddricks Mill were not considered in the EIASSR.

It was originally lodged in a version dated the 18 July 2016 and then amended during the consultation to the version dated 28 July 2016.  The EIASSR contains 17 sections each dealing with a different aspect of the original application or the Town Moor.

What is the wider context of the plans for the Blue House roundabout and Jesmond Dene Road?

The first section introduces the proposal and confirms that the proposals for Blue House, Jesmond Dene Road (as well as Haddricks Mill) are part of the Northern Access Corridor, which:

“runs in an east to west direction approximately 1 km north of Newcastle Upon Tyne City Centre and is intended to enhance and integrate the major routes into and through Newcastle in the north of the city.” (1.1.1)

The Gosforth section of the Northern Access corridor is shown above.

This section also confirms that the proposals would require land take from Registered Common Land.  This would require separate consent, which would be sought in conjunction with the planning application (1.3.2).  The version of the 18 July stated that a proposal had been agreed in principle between Newcastle City Council and the Freemen of Newcastle upon Tyne. However, the later version replaced that statement with the following:

“Any land take from Registered Common Land will require separate consent which would need to be sought in conjunction with the planning application. NCC has discussed the issue of a land swap with the Freemen. Currently no agreement is in place as this relies on a detailed design which is not yet in place and is also subject to public consultation. During these early discussions the Freemen of the City have noted that any changes at this location should ensure that the city’s growth and success in future years is secured. Further, that if major changes are made in this location that they should be done sympathetically to the surrounding areas and be designed in such a way as to ensure that further roadworks or changes are not required in this location for decades.” (1.3.2)

What does the EIASSR tell us about the Town Moor?

1. Wildlife

The EIASSR brings together a substantial amount of information about Newcastle’s Town Moor, and the surrounding open space and communities.

Newcastle’s Town Moor is known to be common land, but the EIASSR confirms that Duke’s Moor, Little Moor and the allotments adjacent to Jesmond Dene Road are also areas of Registered Common Land (13.2.3).
The EIASSR lists the different species that live on the Town Moor (Table 8.1), these include protected species such as:

•  bats;
• 5 species of birds that are on the red list of birds of conservation concern (skylark, house sparrow, mistle thrush, song thrush and starling) and 3 species on the amber list (swift, housemartin and meadow pipit).  Swifts have also been identified as a species under particular threat locally.  These classifications result from all native birds in the UK being split into three groups. Red is the highest conservation priority, with species needing urgent action. Amber is the next most critical group.  Green are species that occur regularly in the UK, but are not classed as amber or red. The RSPB also explain that with the right action, species can recover and be moved on to the green list.  One such success is a bird that has become an iconic bird for Gateshead: the red kite.
• There are no records of reptiles on the survey area, but the EIASSR states that the Little Moor allotments
  could provide habitat for them, most probably for slow worms, another protected species.
• Hedgehogs are also to be found in the area, and while not protected, they have been identified as a species under threat locally.  The photograph on the right was taken on Linden Road in Gosforth the same day the article in the last link was published and illustrates the threat to wildlife posed by human lifestyles.

The EIASSR also confirms that the Town Moor is a site of local conservation interest (8.2.6) and that there is a  wildlife corridor that runs from the Town Moor, through the junction of Jesmond Dene Road and Osborne Road and the Little Moor to the Metro line (8.2.7).  The previous proposals for the Blue House Roundabout were identified as potentially having these effects on wildlife:

• construction phase: loss or degradation of habitat; mortality of protected species; damage to retained trees (8.4.1);
• operational phase: severance / fragmentation of habitat and disturbance due to changes in lighting and traffic volumes (8.4.1).

2. Cultural heritage and historical significance

The EIASSR also acknowledges the Town Moor’s historic status, by noting that it was granted as common land by King John around 1213 and that its boundaries are largely unchanged (Appendix D).

The EIASSR also confirms that Newcastle City Council recognise that the Town Moor is a special space and that it is one of 6 areas in Newcastle considered to be of “exceptional landscape value” and that development that will “demonstrably harm” it will not be allowed (7.1.3).  Figure 7.1 in Appendix C confirms that both Duke’s Moor and the Little Moor are included in the definition of “exceptional landscape value”.  All 3 moors are also  designated parkland (7.1.8), and the Town Moor and Duke’s Moor are considered to be an “Area of Countryside Character” (7.2.7).

Section 6 gives details of the buildings and other items of cultural heritage in the area of study, but concludes that they are “low value” (6.3.1), with the exception of the Town Moor Boundary Stone (pictured right, a grade II listed building deemed “medium value” by the report), the Town Moor itself and the conservation areas of Gosforth and Jesmond Dene.

The Blue House itself is a locally listed building, as is the Laing Memorial Fountain (pictured left), and both of these could have been affected by the previous proposals (6.4).

Another locally listed building close to the Blue House is the Colvill Memorial Fountain (pictured right).

What threatens the landscape of the Town Moor?

1. Japanese Knotweed

It may seem surprising that an area of exceptional landscape value could also be “land in a contaminated state”, but the Town Moor is due to the presence of Japanese knotweed.  One risk of the proposed construction works is that they risk spreading this species (8.4.1). The EIASSR does not contain any information about action being taken to remove this species.

2. Air pollution

The Blue House Roundabout is within the South Gosforth Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) (see map right for the extent of the AQMA) due to the high levels of nitrogen dioxide in this area.  The readings quoted in the EIASSR confirm that levels of this pollutant are decreasing, however some readings are still in excess of the air quality standard, and the AQMA is still required (5.2.3).

The EIASSR considered that proposed development had the potential to cause air pollution which would have affected public health in the following ways (5.4.1):

• changes in traffic flows/composition/speeds could affect pollutant concentration
• changes in location of sources of air pollution due to changes in the road layout could also affect pollutant concentration, and
• construction related dust emissions could affect dust deposition rates.

The EIASSR does not include any other pollutants as the AQMA has only been declared for nitrogen dioxide.  However, SPACE for Gosforth’s own monitoring of pollution on Gosforth High Street (one of the roads leading to the Blue House roundabout) detected levels of another pollutant, fine particles, that were always above the WHO levels for that pollutant, and at times above higher EU level.  Nor does the EIASSR include any discussion of the many medical conditions where air pollution is thought to be a contributing factor.

3. Noise

The previous proposals for the Blue House and Jesmond Dene Road had the potential to increase noise levels, both from construction work and any increase in traffic (10.4).  For more information about current noise levels in Gosforth, Defra have an interactive map showing estimated noise levels from major roads, railways and industrial premises.  The EIASSR confirms that the junction of Jesmond Dene Road and Osborne road is within an noise important area associated with the metro line  (10.2.1).

4. Water

The original proposals had the potential to affect both the drainage systems on the Town Moor and the Ouseburn (11.4.1), to cause water pollution to surface water (11.4.3), and also to adversely affect an acquifer (11.4.4).

What is missing from the report?

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