The Government and Council's initial response to COVID-19 has been, quite rightly, to ensure people are safe and well, protect jobs and critical services, and to minimise the spread of the virus. Already by mid-April 2020 the virus has killed thousands of people in the UK alone, and left unchecked would kill many many more. Read more [...] How are city transport planners responding to COVID-19?
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The Government and Council's initial response to COVID-19 has been, quite rightly, to ensure people are safe and well, protect jobs and critical services, and to minimise the spread of the virus. Already by mid-April 2020 the virus has killed thousands of people in the UK alone, and left unchecked would kill many many more. Read more [...] 
Newcastle City Council have proposed that Blackett Street and parts of New Bridge Street are made into a pedestrian area linking Northumberland Street, Monument and Old Eldon Square. This blog is our response to the Council's consultation. 
Sunday 10 November 2019 was Remembrance Sunday. As is traditional, local cadets and scouts paraded down Gosforth High Street and into Gosforth Central Park for a short service and to observe a two-minute silence in memory of members of the armed forces that lost their lives in the two world wars and later conflicts.
The Remembrance Day Service in Gosforth Central Park offers an opportunity to reflect and mourn for the past, and it is also an opportunity to pause and to examine the present. 
"Up to a sixth of cot deaths may be directly attributable to pollutants from vehicle exhaust fumes, it was revealed yesterday" - news article from the Newcastle Evening Chronicle.
No one who reads this blog should be surprised that pollution can kill or that babies and children are among the worst affected. What might surprise you is that this news article is from 18 May 2004.
This was one of the earliest reports we found in the Evening Chronicle's electronic archive covering Air Pollution, 
We now have the official air pollution measurements for 2018 and the air we breathe in Newcastle still hasn't met the legal limit that should have been achieved in 2005. 
The new plan has a smaller Clean Air Zone and no financial disincentive for private cars no matter how polluting they are. In this blog we describe the Council's final (watered-down) plan and why we think it unlikely that the relevant legal tests will be met in full without further measures in addition to those proposed. 
This is the fourth and final SPACE for Gosforth blog that together make up our response to the Council’s Clean Air consultation.
Our first blog set out our review of the Council’s proposed measures. In our second blog we proposed measures for the city as a whole and in our third blog we proposed measures for the Gosforth Air Quality Management Area (AQMA).
In our final blog we respond to the Councils' questions about future funding and implementing air quality measures. Measures to meet 
We know from our own measurements that there is space for separate, good quality walking and cycling provision at Haddricks Mill, but that the Council has chosen, contrary to its own policy and legal obligation to reduce air pollution, to prioritise high-speed and potentially dangerous vehicle movements instead. 
This is the third of four SPACE for Gosforth blogs that together make up our response to the Council’s Clean Air consultation. In this blog we propose specific measures for the Gosforth Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) which covers Gosforth High Street, Jesmond Dene Road, Haddricks Mill Road and the Haddricks Mill junction. 
This is the second of four SPACE for Gosforth blogs that together make up our response to the Council's Clean Air consultation.
Our first blog set out our review of the Council's proposed measures including a charging clean air zone and an alternative approach made up of a lower emission zone where non-compliant vehicles are banned and there are tolls on the city centre bridge.
In this blog we propose measures for the city as a whole and specifically for the City Centre Air Quality Management