Measures to reduce traffic cutting through local streets in Fenham have been given the green light by Newcastle City Council. The council has started the process to have legal orders in place in the coming weeks to restrict traffic cutting through some streets to create safer, cleaner and greener neighbourhoods.Fenham will be one of the first areas in the city to trial a low traffic neighbourhood with a number of streets to be closed to through traffic, following feedback from people and businesses in the area.Changes in Fenham include closing the junction of Queensway and Kingsway to through traffic, as well as Gowland Avenue and Nuns Moor Road. Other supporting measures include changes at junctions on surrounding streets to reduce vehicle speeds and improve crossings. Some other measures are being paused, while more monitoring will be taking place on other streets to ensure more actions can be taken if necessary to ensure traffic isn’t just moved from one residential street to another. Cllr Ged Bell, cabinet member for developments, neighbourhoods and transport said:” “We’re committed to creating safer, cleaner and greener neighbourhoods across the city, making it safer for everyone to walk and cycle on local journeys as well as reduce levels of unnecessary traffic in residential areas. “This package of measures for Fenham will reduce traffic cutting through local streets, create more space for people to walk and cycle and crucially make it much safer for children going to school or playing in their local area.“Many thanks to everyone who got in touch about the proposals, we have listened to your feedback, and refined the scheme accordingly, with more discussions planned to tackle school-related traffic, as we finalise the designs and firm up timescales. “It’s changes to how we move around our local area which can have a big impact on our health and wellbeing, tackle air quality and improve the safety of people living there which is why we are developing further proposals for areas across the city.”Using ETROs, the council will make changes to streets including using bollards or planters to restrict vehicle access. The ETROs can remain in place for up to 18 months, with a public consultation running in the first six months. Last November, all households in the area received an initial leaflet outlining proposals and an update that explains the final proposed measures and how to take part in the consultation are being prepared and will be sent to local residents, ahead of the scheme being implemented.Most of the changes will be trialled, with temporary measures installed as this allows the council to make any changes quickly and to gather people’s views before making a long-term decision on whether the schemes should be permanent. Permanent measures, which the council do not intend to trial and will be subject to a separate consultation, include measures to reduce speeding on Wingrove Road and to close the junction to through traffic on Hadrian Road at its junction with Wingrove Garden to make it safer for children travelling to Wingrove Primary School. The package of measures for Fenham was released in November, alongside proposals for Arthur’s Hill and Heaton. The council is reviewing the feedback for Arthur’s Hill and Heaton, with more information to follow soon.Thousands of leaflets have also been delivered to residents in other parts of the city, including Jesmond, Shieldfield, West Fenham, Kenton and Ouseburn Valley, asking residents to raise any issues that they would like the council to include in developing low traffic neighbourhood proposals in their area.The plans for low traffic neighbourhoods follows on from the closure of five local bridges to traffic in August 2020, which the council confirmed earlier this month will remain permanently in place.

Green light given for low traffic neighbourhood trial

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Decisions to permanently close five local bridges to traffic are confirmed by Newcastle City Council today (1 February) as part of the council’s commitment to reduce traffic cutting through local streets and improve local neighbourhoods for the people who live there.Vehicles have been restricted from using Salters Bridge in Gosforth, Castle Farm Road next to Jesmond Dene, Haldane Bridge in South Jesmond, Argyle Street bridge in Ouseburn, and Stoneyhurst Road Bridge in South Gosforth for just under 18 months, to re-allocate the road space for walking and cycling as part of the council’s response to the pandemic and in line with government’s expectations of councils and local policies to promote active travel.Cllr Ged Bell, cabinet member for development, neighbourhoods, and transport said: “We’re committed to creating safer, cleaner and greener neighbourhoods and the closure of these bridges to traffic is a part of achieving this. “We recognise that public opinion has been split on this, as it often is with measures that prioritise or provide more space for active travel. The closure of some bridges to traffic have been more warmly welcomed than others, but we believe it is the right thing to do to create better neighbourhoods which put people first.”Cllr Clare Penny-Evans, cabinet member for climate change and public safety said, “The principle of this programme is really simple and is something we want to roll out across the city. Neighbourhoods should be places people can access by vehicle if they need to, but being able to cut through local streets means people do that, and it makes our neighbourhoods more dangerous. “Salters Bridge is a perfect example of this, where we saw many large HGVs navigate over a weak medieval structure, which we had to repeatedly issue warnings on. The closure of this bridge has stopped those vehicles thundering through quiet streets, making the area safer for everyone, particularly for children who can have a sense of playing in their local streets just as many older residents did, before streets were taken over by vehicles.”Cllr John-Paul Stephenson said, “We’ve seen the report on air pollution around schools and the dreadful health impact poor air quality can have on children. It is initiatives such as these that will encourage more people out of their cars to walk and cycle on local journeys and improve everyone’s health.”Cllr Bell added, “We’ve taken the time to thoroughly review the impact of the closures on local communities and I am satisfied that keeping the bridges closed to traffic supports our policies on transport, tackling air pollution and improving public health, as well as meeting our statutory duties.“We will press on with our plans to expand more of these initiatives across the city and introducing School Streets following successful trials. Thousands of people will have received leaflets recently in areas across the city inviting them to raise issues in their local areas so we can include them in our thinking. These types of schemes are important as they ensure local streets are designed for people, and not dominated by vehicles, cleaning up our air and improving our health and wellbeing.” Using Experimental Traffic Regulation Orders (ETROs), the council re-allocated the road space for people walking and cycling last August, due to the many schools and amenities in the local areas and the environmental and health benefits this brings. A public consultation ran in the first six months of the closure which generated 42,000 contributions. These were used to inform the decision-making process, alongside other factors such as traffic levels on surrounding streets, traffic speeds, how many people have been using the bridges for walking and cycling and air quality where monitors are in place. The review concluded that all five bridges should remain permanently closed, with the potential for some further minor works near Stoneyhurst Bridge to address the concerns of people living east of the bridge. This work includes improving the visibility from Dene Crescent onto Haddricks Mill Road as well as potentially introducing a one-way system on four of the surrounding streets.All of the bridges reported good levels of walking and cycling in the area while the impact on the surrounding road network was manageable and there was no indication of a negative impact on road safety. Discussions have also taken place with emergency services which only raised a potential issue with the closures of Argyle Street Bridge, but following further work those concerns have been addressed.As a follow up to the closure to the bridges, further proposals for low traffic neighbourhoods in Arthur’s Hill, Fenham and Heaton were launched in November, for people to feedback on any potential issues they may foresee ahead of the council implementing changes in early 2022. Comments received from residents are currently being reviewed, which will inform the final designs of the scheme. The council are working on a rolling programme of low traffic neighbourhoods across the city with further schemes to be released in the coming weeks, including Jesmond, Shieldfield, West Fenham, Kenton and Ouseburn Valley.Reports setting out the Delegated Decisions for each of the five bridges is published here Argyle St - <a href="https://democracy.newcastle.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=10801">https://democracy.newcastle.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=10801</a> Haldane - <a href="https://democracy.newcastle.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=10799">https://democracy.newcastle.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=10799</a> Dene Bridge / Castle Farm Rd – <a href="https://democracy.newcastle.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=10798">https://democracy.newcastle.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=10798</a> Stoneyhurst - <a href="https://democracy.newcastle.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=10802">https://democracy.newcastle.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=10802</a> Salters Bridge- <a href="https://democracy.newcastle.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=10800">https://democracy.newcastle.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=10800</a> Further information on low traffic neighbourhoods can be found at <a href="https://www.newcastle.gov.uk/our-city/transport-improvements/outside-city-centre/neighbourhoods">www.newcastle.gov.uk/neighbourhoods </a>

Related news - Council confirms traffic restrictions on five local bridges to be made permanent

Corrected figures for Fenham on 16 DecemberMany thanks to everyone for your comments on our proposals to create safer, cleaner and greener neighbourhoods in Arthur’s Hill, Fenham and Heaton. Feedback on the proposals closed on 7 December 2021.A lot of the comments received were positive, with some people asking us to be bolder but some residents have raised some potential issues, which this process is designed to tease out.Our team will be busy reviewing your responses and we will share with you the final designs for your area in early 2022.Some hi-lights from each area include:Arthur’s Hill•	432 visitors to the Commonplace website •	142 total number of comments•	60 number of people who left comments Proposals that prompted the most comments were Sidney Grove, followed by Stanhope Street.Fenham•	1,114 visitors to the Commonplace website •	506 total number of comments (previous figure of 1414 comments included 908 agreements on comments made)•	246 number of people who left comments Proposals that prompted the most comments were Gowland Avenue – Bolbec Road – Nuns Moor Road, then Moorside South, closely followed by the junction of Queensway and Kingsway and then Wingrove Road.Heaton•	2,369 visitors to the Commonplace website •	979 total number of comments•	322 number of people who left comments Proposals that prompted the most comments were Ouseburn Road and Warwick Street – Heaton park View.Residents and businesses have also got in touch through emails and phone calls and these will also be considered as part of the final designs for each area.If you haven’t already, please ensure you sign up for our project news so we can update you directly via email.Details of all schemes are also available at <a href="https://www.newcastle.gov.uk/neighburhoods">www.newcastle.gov.uk/neighbourhoods </a>

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