Grandstand Road used to be one of the worst places to cycle in Gosforth, even with marked cycle lanes. With heavy traffic, often travelling in excess of the 40mph speed limit, cycle lanes barely wider than a set of handlebars and deteriorating surface, it was both scary and unforgiving.
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Grandstand Road used to be one of the worst places to cycle in Gosforth, even with marked cycle lanes. With heavy traffic, often travelling in excess of the 40mph speed limit, cycle lanes barely wider than a set of handlebars and deteriorating surface, it was both scary and unforgiving.
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Newcastle City Council have published their final plans for the Broadway to Brunton Cycle Lane and construction is due to start soon in a series of phases to minimise disruption.
Residents' feedback showed that there was broad support, with most people agreeing with the aims of the scheme but with a number of detail points that needed addressing. In this blog we take a look at the consultation process and the changes made by the Council as a result of that feedback. 
As part of its draft Development and Allocations Plan, Newcastle City Council has set out the detail policies that it believes will help it achieve the objectives set out in The Core Strategy and Urban Core Plan, and which together will guide how the city is to be developed up to 2030.
In this second blog on the draft DAP we want to look at proposed policy DM10 covering pedestrian and cycle movement. 
Poor Air quality is well known for its ability to make people ill and to shorten lives and has been linked to cancer, asthma, stroke and heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and dementia. You may have heard of Alive After Five, the late night shopping initiative in Newcastle City Centre that has free parking as a major feature to attract shoppers. SPACE for Gosforth has had a long-standing concern that driving is the only means of transport being promoted for access into the city at this time and that this is contributing to illegal levels of air pollution in Newcastle City Centre. 
This is a guest blog by local journalist Carlton Reid. The wide, smooth and kerb-delineated cycleway on John Dobson Street is believed by many to be the first and finest such infrastructure in the North East for people on bikes. It’s the finest but it’s not the first. Read on to discover how the North East was once a leader in providing for cyclists and how Carlton wants to bring these historic routes back into use. 
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. 
A Bike Train is a led ride along safe routes, and the idea is that it shows people a good route to work to get them started commuting by bike.
I heard that GoSmarter was running a Bike Train from Kingston Park through Gosforth to Quorum business park and decided to try it out. I checked out the route and timetable online.
I registered for the Bike Train, joining at my nearest stop which was Regent Centre, and received a confirmation email.
The journey
On the morning of the 
In October 2016 SPACE for Gosforth arranged a review of recent changes to the Salters Road / Gosforth High Street junction with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association , engineers from Newcastle City Council and Zoe the Guide Dog. 
Even at 20mph 17% of adults are killed or seriously injured when hit by a car. For children or older residents the figures will be worse. Why then do so many ignore the 20mph speed limits in place throughout Gosforth’s back streets? Walking to school should not be an extreme sport.
This is the story of three of Gosforth’s back streets. One has a low volume of traffic mostly driving within the speed limit, somewhere we all might like to live and where children might reasonably be left to play 
If we want the High Street to thrive as a family destination and the businesses to prosper, then we need to make the High Street a safe environment where parents are happy to window shop with their children. A 20 mph limit from Salters Road to the Town Moor would be the first step in making Gosforth High Street as family friendly as its businesses.
The sheer quantity and quality of destinations for children on and around Gosforth High Street is amazing.
There are places children regularly