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.
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Newcastle City Council has just published its draft Development and Allocations Plan, which is the second part of the local plan that, with the first part The Core Strategy and Urban Core Plan, will guides how the city is to be developed up to 2030. As a result of our investigations we believe 93 hectares of Green Space, equivalent to 130 football pitches, could be built on as a result of the new standards.
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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. 
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. 
One of our members was so concerned about idling engines by his children's school - so he decided some education was needed! 
Blue House, Gosforth High Street, electric bikes, guest speakers and much much more - a year in the life of SPACE for Gosforth! 
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. 
In this post we look at the Environmental Impact Assessment Screening & Scoping Report ("the EIASSR") lodged as part of the planning documents for the original plans for the Blue House roundabout and Jesmond Dene Road. The EIASSR's aim was to identify the different types of environmental assessments that would have been needed had those plans gone ahead.