The Regent Centre is one of the main destinations in Gosforth along with Gosforth High Street. Built in the 1970s on the site of the former Coxlodge Colliery, Regent Centre was at one time one of the largest office complexes in Europe. Now it includes the Gosforth swimming pool, library and Civic Theatre, as well as being close to several schools and the Regent Centre Metro and bus interchange.

We have taken a look and have come up with a set of proposals to improve walking and cycling access so that office workers, children and families can get to work, school or other local facilities. If you can think of further improvements or other issues that might need resolving please do let us know though.

The map below shows the area we have looked at, including the route of improved walking and cycling facilities connecting St Charles Primary School on the left and Archbishop Runcie First School on the right.

This route connects into the current north-south cycle route that comes from Parklands down the Great North Road, turns into Christon Road and the goes south via Alwinton Terrace. The Great North Road cycle route also needs improving north of Christon Road where there are only narrow painted lanes, and south to connect into Gosforth High Street. Taken together this is the “Gosforth Plus” cluster of destinations we identified in our top level Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP) assessment for Gosforth.

One of the strangest features of the Regent Centre is the enormous roundabout. Measuring on Google Earth, this is about 55m across, or about the same area as eleven tennis courts. The road width is about 9m, which is about enough space to park two buses and two cars all side by side. As it stands this is a massive wasted space and the very wide road encourages dangerous speeding traffic.

These super-size dimensions are an opportunity to create a new usable green space without impacting vehicle access, roughly as laid out below.

This new green space connects to the library and swimming pool, and could include benches or play equipment, or additional trees and planting. It’s in a great location that could be used for families to sit and relax after visiting the pool, for office workers to relax during their lunch breaks or for the gym to run outdoor exercise sessions.

It also means one less road crossing for people walking east to west and a much more direct route. Vehicle traffic would still have access as the current north and west sides of the roundabout would become a two way road. This could be implemented very quickly using a few planters to mark out the edge of the new road in advance of permanent landscaping.

Outside the Gosforth Civic Theatre and Eagle Star House there is a bit less space but still sufficient to have separate walking and cycling routes. We have spoken to the developers for Eagle Star House and the Civic Theatre who are both okay in principle with the proposal.

This is what the route could look like by Eagle Star House, with children able to travel by bike safely away from the traffic to St Charles School or to the swimming pool or library.

On Christon Road, on the east of the Great North Road, there is also space to widen the pavement to include a separate lane for cycling, mostly for the use of children on the way to Archbishop Runcie and Gosforth Central Middle schools to keep them safe from school traffic and vehicles accessing the industrial estate.

The current Great North Road crossing is entirely inadequate at busy times because the Council has designed the junction to have a two-stage pedestrian crossing to increase vehicle traffic, but which requires people crossing to cram into a narrow ‘sheep pen’ in the middle of the road.

In the picture below, people on the left have given up even trying to fit into the ‘sheep pen’ and are just using any bit of pavement available. The picture also shows that the crossing is already used by children on bikes.

If this were a single stage crossing, there would be plenty of space for both walking and cycling, and the crossing itself could be adapted by simply removing the railings giving more space for everyone to cross. This would also reduce the danger to children stuck at the edge of the crossing.

We mentioned above the need to improve connectivity north for cycling. There is plenty of space available here to create protected cycle lanes that would be suitable for all ages and abilities. The picture below shows unused space in the middle of the road and there are also railings on the right of the picture that could be removed.  Arguably there is over-provision for vehicles at this location as all that should really be needed is one all-vehicle lane in each direction and an additional south-bound bus lane.

In this proposal we have included more green space and provided new safer walking and cycling routes to schools. These were the top two responses to the SPACE for Gosforth Your Streets – Your Views survey with close to 90% support from residents for both. The changes, if implemented, should also result in a safer crossing of the Great North Road and more places to sit, especially at the new roundabout garden green space.

It is just a proposal though and we are sure it can be improved further. If you have any suggestions please do let us know via the comments below.

This is a video we made in 2016 to show what cycling is like at the Regent Centre.

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SPACE for Gosforth has produced some air pollution banners for local schools for Clean Air Day 2019.

Air pollution is a serious issue in Gosforth due to high volumes of traffic travelling through Gosforth High Street and Haddricks Mill junction.

Children aren’t responsible for this pollution but they are affected by it, not just when travelling by car or on main roads, but also outside schools and in car parks where there are lots of vehicles in a small area.

As adults, and as parents, this is something we can do something about. No one wants their children to be breathing in dirty air from other people’s exhaust fumes.

If you have just seen one of the banners and want to find out more, you’ll find more information below, including links to data sources.

If you want to know more about the health risks of air pollution and what you, the Government and Newcastle City Council can do about it, please also read on.

1. What’s the problem with school traffic and air pollution?

According to the Department for Transport, school traffic makes up one in four vehicles on the road at peak times. And yet children are amongst the most likely to be made ill by air pollution.

According to the British Lung Foundation “Children are more vulnerable to breathing in polluted air than adults. For their size, they breathe more air each minute than an adult. Buggies and prams put them at the level of car exhausts.“

The Royal College of Physicians estimate that in the UK 40,000 deaths a year are linked to air pollution and that air pollution impacts the development of unborn children with additional risk of miscarriage, is linked to asthma, diabetes, dementia, obesity and cancer, and increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes for those in later life.

Children who are taken to school by car will also be exposed to more air pollution than children who walk or cycle, even if they walk or cycle on the same polluted streets. This is because pollution from vehicle exhaust fumes is more concentrated in the middle of the road. According to the Governement’s Air Quality Plan, vehicles are responsible for 80% of roadside air pollution.

2. What is the Government doing about air pollution?

In July 2017 the Government instructed local authorities to produce new plans to meet air pollution targets for nitrogen dioxide (chemical name NO₂) in the shortest possible timescales.

Although air quality had been improving, legal limits in force since 2010 have still not been met and in 2016 the UK High Court ruled that the Government’s plans at the time were so poor as to be illegal.

In the North East, illegal levels of air pollution are still being recorded in Newcastle, Gosforth, Gateshead (by the Tyne Bridge), North Tyneside (the Coast Road), Durham and Sunderland.

Illegal Air Pollution in Newcastle city centre in 2017

The approaches that are most effective at reducing air pollution are reducing vehicle volumes e.g. through access restrictions or road charging, or cleaner engines.

The Tyneside Councils’ proposal included two alternatives for charging: a Charging Clean Air Zone or tolls on the Tyne bridges. The later option also included access restrictions where older more polluting buses, taxis and HGVs would not be allowed in Newcastle city centre.

3. What can I do?

If you can manage it, a walk or cycle to school is a great way to start the day. Children who walk or cycle to school have been found to do better in class because they arrive refreshed, fit and ready to learn.

It’s not just good for the children either. A study of 250,000 UK commuters showed that adults who walk or cycle substantially reduce their risk of cancer and heart disease.

If you do need to use a car please consider “Park and Stride” – parking away from the school and walking the last few hundred meters. If the school has a dedicated car park, please don’t idle your engine and let other parents know why they should turn off their engines as well.

If you are worried about walking on polluted streets, it may be possible to find a quieter route, but even if you can’t it has been shown that the health benefits of cycling and walking ‘outweigh air pollution risk’.

Air Pollution Colouring Picture

4. What else could the Council do?

We know, when thinking about walking or cycling with children, it isn’t a simple matter of choice and that there are real and serious barriers that make it harder for families to walk or cycle.

SPACE for Gosforth has spent the last three years looking at how to make it easier and safer for residents of all ages and abilities to walk or cycle around Gosforth.

We know from Council measurements that some residential streets have high levels of traffic and speeding vehicles and that speeds over 20mph dramatically increase risk for children. We have done a “blind walk” on Gosforth High Streetthat highlighted lots of issues for people with visual impairments.

We have found research that shows where parents will allow their children to cycle, and that for the most part current road layouts don’t meet that standard. We have assessed local streets for whether they support inclusive cycling for people who cannot use a standard bicycle.

There are also pleny of good local examples of low-traffic neighbourhoods where it is safe for children to travel and to play out.

Safe routes and low traffic neighbourhoods

Your voice is important. If you want streets that are safe for children, please do speak to your school and let Local Councillors know about what would help you and your family.

If you live in or travel through Gosforth you can join SPACE for Gosforth, sign up to our email list or join in the discussion on Facebook or Twitter.

Thank you for your support.

The post NO2 Air Pollution appeared first on SPACE for Gosforth.

Eagle Star House is located close to the Regent Centre Metro and bus station, and so from a transport perspective is a good location for new housing. As this helps the Council meet its target for new house building, it could also help avoid the need for further new estates built on on the edge of Newcastle in locations that would lead to large increases in vehicle traffic.

At the same time, being located so close to the Great North Road there are almost certainly going to be concerns relating to air quality, and efforts to improve air quality for all residents must continue to be prioritised.

This is the letter we received.

Re: Proposed residential development of Eagle Star House, Regent Farm Road, Gosforth Reference 17/00052/NRE

Dear Mr Edwards,

This is not an objection but a suggestion that a Section 106 and/or 278 Agreement be used to ensure that land to the front of the site is made available for a wider footpath together with a cycle path. Together with land already owned or under the control of the council this could be made possible.

The current path is a heavily used school route with pedestrian traffic from the Gosforth terraces towards St Charles school on Regent Farm Road and pedestrian traffic in the other direction to Archbishop Runcie and Gosforth Central Middle schools on Christon Road. Both these roads and especially Christon Road suffer extreme congestion at school drop off and collection times. I believe that encouraging parents and children to walk/cycle by making a better and safer environment would help ease this congestion.

A table ramp at the entrance to Eagle Star House car park would ensure that the path and cycle way have no kerbs here and demonstrate priority for the pedestrian and cyclist. At the same time the vegetation around the entrance could be removed improving the sightlines.

This route would link to the existing cycle network on the Great North Road, which travels along Christon Road and then down Alwinton Terrace.

The above map shows how the route would help link east and west Gosforth housing areas as well as providing a route by the front of three schools, Gosforth swimming pool and gym, Gosforth Library, Newcastle Council Customer Service Centre, Gosforth Civic Theatre and an area of employment.

Yours sincerely,

Details of the planning notification can be found on the Newcastle City Council on-line planning portal. The reference for the application is 17/00052/NRE. According to the portal, the last date for submitting comments was 15 March 2017. The author only saw the notice on the final day and we received the email on the 16th.

*UPDATE – 17 April 2017: 

1) Planning ‘application’ corrected to Planning ‘notification for prior approval’. Under permitted development rights introduced in 2013 it is no longer necessary to submit a full planning application when converting offices to homes. See press release: Thousands more homes to be developed in planning shake up from the Department of Communities and Local Government. Issues that can still be considered, and could result in the notification being rejected, include transport and highways impact; contamination risks; flooding risks; and impact of noise from commercial premises on the intended occupiers of the development. In this case the transport analysis suggested a likely reduction in vehicle movements as a result of the change of use.

2) On 7 April 2017 the developer Lambert Smith Hampton withdrew the application. 

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