cars – Page 2 – High West Jesmond

March 28, 2019March 31, 2019

Blue House roundabout plans ‘on hold’

The Evening Chronicle has reported that the plans to overhaul Newcastle’s Blue House roundabout are ‘on hold’ because of the city’s pollution issues.

Newcastle City Council first unveiled its plans to make major changes to the Blue House Roundabout in 2016.

‘Mega roundabout’ on the Town Moor

The original plans were for a so-called ‘mega roundabout’ to be built on the Town Moor.

There was substantial concern from local residents and huge protests took place which saw the original proposals abandoned.

High West Jesmond Residents Assiciation (HWJRA) represented the views of local residents at the time and opposed the 2016 plans.

Subsequently HWJRA, together with Jesmond Residents Association, West Gosforth Residents Association and others were represented on the Blue House Working Group which was then set up to consider alternative suggestions.

You can read a background summary on the Blue House Roundabout here.

Blue House Working Group made proposals

It’s now more than a year since an the alternative proposal from the Blue House Working Group was unveiled and it was expected that a response from Newcastle City Council would be announced soon.

It was anticipated that final designs for Blue House roundabout were being developed and modelled based on recommendations from the working group set up following the backlash to original proposals in the summer of 2016.

And these final plans were anticipated to be publicised this summer.

‘On hold’

The Evening Chronicle has reported that plans for the Blue House roundabout have been put ‘on hold’.

Read more on the Evening Chronicle website: Blue House roundabout on hold due to pollution crisis

We need to ‘take into account air quality’

The Evening Chronicle reported on 28 March 2019 that Graham Grant, Head of Transport Investment, told a Newcastle City Council Oversight and Scrutiny Committee meeting on Tuesday that:

“We need to take into account the consultation on air quality.

At the moment, both the Blue House roundabout and Haddricks Mill both feature as part of the Clean Air Zone – we have been clear that we are open to different ideas and interpretations and are consulting on an alternative.

“We need to understand where we are going with that piece of work before we can commit to the design of the Blue House roundabout.

We have said that we will deliver improvements there not all at the same time — we are doing Killingworth Road, then Haddricks Mill, then Blue House roundabout.

We feel that we have sufficient time to take into account the outcomes of the air quality work before we finalise proposals.”

You can read a background summary on the Blue House Roundabout here.

March 14, 2019March 14, 2019

Residents parking

There has been an ongoing and rather lively debate on the HWJRA Facebook page about the pros and cons of residents’ parking in our area.

Live in High West Jesmond? why not join our HWJRA Facebook group

It’s fair to say that opinion is divided on this matter with those people living on streets near to the metro and bus stops (Albury Road, Moorfield, Ilford Road) more likely to be in favour than those who do not.

The council last tested local opinion on this matter in 2010 and are prepared to do so again, however before they can put the issue of residents’ parking to a local poll they need to conduct an assessment of the current parking density in the area.

HWJRA has pointed out to the council that if they were to do an assessment right now then it might be misrepresentative of what is about to happen.

This is because, under the Streets for People proposed changes to Ilford Road and Moorfield, a number of parking spaces would be lost on both roads with the likely net result that the parking density in the middle part of Moorfield would become even greater.

We have therefore suggested to the council that they either factor this in to their calculations or they delay the assessment until the Streets for People work is completed. We will keep you updated on this.