On 4 September, Newcastle City Council published a planning application to build on South Gosforth Green. This application is for 7 bungalows in a courtyard arrangement with parking and an access road from Ridgewood Gardens to the north. The facilities proposed, to support people with physical disabilities and those with learning disabilities and/or autism, are undoubtably a good thing. On the other hand, if approved, this development will lead to the irreversible loss of part of the green currently available and of benefit to the wider community. So while we support the creation of such a facility we do have concerns about the use of this location and the precedent this may set to allow building on other green space. Read more [...] South Gosforth Green – comments by 25 September
Leave a Reply
On 4 September, Newcastle City Council published a planning application to build on South Gosforth Green. This application is for 7 bungalows in a courtyard arrangement with parking and an access road from Ridgewood Gardens to the north. The facilities proposed, to support people with physical disabilities and those with learning disabilities and/or autism, are undoubtably a good thing. On the other hand, if approved, this development will lead to the irreversible loss of part of the green currently available and of benefit to the wider community. So while we support the creation of such a facility we do have concerns about the use of this location and the precedent this may set to allow building on other green space. Read more [...] 
Cycling is a healthy, low cost, low impact way of travelling but currently for many people in Gosforth it is not a viable choice. Although cycling is a relatively safe activity in itself and suitable for many everyday journeys, Gosforth's roads often feel very dangerous because they are so busy with traffic, especially at rush hour and when children are travelling to or from school.
In our post National Walking Month - May 2017 we asked you to help us document locations in Gosforth where there were issues with walking and to share ideas for how Gosforth could be improved for walking. In this post we want to do the same for cycling. 
The Government has announced its Air quality plan for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in UK (2017). The objective of the plan is to reduce concentrations of NO2 around roads where levels are above legal limits and to do so within the shortest possible time. To achieve this the Government has directed local authorities to create their own draft plan to achieve this by March 2018. 
We have just submitted a response to the North East Combined Authority (NECA) Walking and Cycling Survey on behalf of SPACE for Gosforth. NECA leads on strategic transport for the five Tyne and Wear local authorities, Durham County Council and Northumberland County Council. The survey forms part of the stakeholder consultation to inform the NECA Cycling and Walking Strategy and Implementation Plan. 
Newcastle City Council has announced the start of the works to replace the Killingworth Road Metro bridge and widen Killingworth Road. From 20 July 2017 for up to nine months, Killingworth Road will be shut to all traffic including people walking and cycling. Salters Bridge and Castle Farm Road will also be shut to motor traffic. 
On 12 April, six days before the General Election was announced, the Evening Standard published an article quoting Theresa May stating that toxic air pollution is the fourth biggest public health risk behind cancer, obesity and heart disease.
While there are multiple causes for each of these public health risks,
we can dramatically reduce the impact of all these risks - and more -
by changing how we travel. 
The month of May is Living Streets National Walking Month and with your help we want to build a map of all the different ways in which the streets of Gosforth could be made better for walking. If you know of somewhere in or around Gosforth that could be improved for walking please tell us via the comments section. We will add your ideas to our interactive map over the course of the month. 
SPACE for Gosforth received a letter from one of our members in relation to a planning ‘Notification for Prior Approval’ to convert Eagle Star House at the Regent Centre from offices to housing and a potential opportunity to make the currently very busy east-west route between local schools safer for children's travel. We are very grateful to the author for kindly agreeing to allow us to publish the letter and associated graphics. 
Dear Councillor Nick Forbes and Ms Pat Ritchie,
We are writing to urge you to reconsider the decision made on 1 March 2017 to remove all but two of Newcastle's School Crossing Patrols. Whilst we understand that difficult decisions must be made as a consequence of a reduced budget, we feel that children's safety in particular should be considered a priority. 
The Blue House and Jesmond Dene Road Working group met on Monday 13th March. The Agenda for the seventh meeting included:
Feedback from group members
Principal options for the Blue House Junction
Proposals for Jesmond Dene Road and Ilford Road
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