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.

Despite the plans not going ahead, SPACE for Gosforth wanted to look at the EIASSR as it contains a substantial amount of information about the ecosystem of the Town Moor and its relationship with the surrounding communities.  In short it gives us an insight into the many different reasons why Newcastle Town Moor is not only special to the surrounding communities, but an iconic location known throughout the North East of England and beyond. This information remains important as alternative plans for the Blue House roundabout and Jesmond Dene Road are formulated.

THE EIASSR also contains information about the background and scope of the previous plans –  again important information for new plans. As the previous plans were so comprehensively rejected, one question relating to them was whether it was the plans themselves that were flawed, or the objectives that the plans aimed to fulfil?  And are there any issues not included in the EIASSR that ought to be looked at when alternatives are created?

What is the EIASSR and who wrote it?

The EIASSR was lodged with Planning Application documents for the Blue House Roundabout and was prepared for Newcastle City Council by AECOM.  Its purpose was to identify which environmental reports would be needed to assess the impact of the plans for Blue House and Jesmond Dene Road.  The proposals for Haddricks Mill were not considered in the EIASSR.

It was originally lodged in a version dated the 18 July 2016 and then amended during the consultation to the version dated 28 July 2016.  The EIASSR contains 17 sections each dealing with a different aspect of the original application or the Town Moor.

What is the wider context of the plans for the Blue House roundabout and Jesmond Dene Road?

The first section introduces the proposal and confirms that the proposals for Blue House, Jesmond Dene Road (as well as Haddricks Mill) are part of the Northern Access Corridor, which:

“runs in an east to west direction approximately 1 km north of Newcastle Upon Tyne City Centre and is intended to enhance and integrate the major routes into and through Newcastle in the north of the city.” (1.1.1)

The Gosforth section of the Northern Access corridor is shown above.

This section also confirms that the proposals would require land take from Registered Common Land.  This would require separate consent, which would be sought in conjunction with the planning application (1.3.2).  The version of the 18 July stated that a proposal had been agreed in principle between Newcastle City Council and the Freemen of Newcastle upon Tyne. However, the later version replaced that statement with the following:

“Any land take from Registered Common Land will require separate consent which would need to be sought in conjunction with the planning application. NCC has discussed the issue of a land swap with the Freemen. Currently no agreement is in place as this relies on a detailed design which is not yet in place and is also subject to public consultation. During these early discussions the Freemen of the City have noted that any changes at this location should ensure that the city’s growth and success in future years is secured. Further, that if major changes are made in this location that they should be done sympathetically to the surrounding areas and be designed in such a way as to ensure that further roadworks or changes are not required in this location for decades.” (1.3.2)

What does the EIASSR tell us about the Town Moor?

1. Wildlife

The EIASSR brings together a substantial amount of information about Newcastle’s Town Moor, and the surrounding open space and communities.

Newcastle’s Town Moor is known to be common land, but the EIASSR confirms that Duke’s Moor, Little Moor and the allotments adjacent to Jesmond Dene Road are also areas of Registered Common Land (13.2.3).
The EIASSR lists the different species that live on the Town Moor (Table 8.1), these include protected species such as:

•  bats;
• 5 species of birds that are on the red list of birds of conservation concern (skylark, house sparrow, mistle thrush, song thrush and starling) and 3 species on the amber list (swift, housemartin and meadow pipit).  Swifts have also been identified as a species under particular threat locally.  These classifications result from all native birds in the UK being split into three groups. Red is the highest conservation priority, with species needing urgent action. Amber is the next most critical group.  Green are species that occur regularly in the UK, but are not classed as amber or red. The RSPB also explain that with the right action, species can recover and be moved on to the green list.  One such success is a bird that has become an iconic bird for Gateshead: the red kite.
• There are no records of reptiles on the survey area, but the EIASSR states that the Little Moor allotments
  could provide habitat for them, most probably for slow worms, another protected species.
• Hedgehogs are also to be found in the area, and while not protected, they have been identified as a species under threat locally.  The photograph on the right was taken on Linden Road in Gosforth the same day the article in the last link was published and illustrates the threat to wildlife posed by human lifestyles.

The EIASSR also confirms that the Town Moor is a site of local conservation interest (8.2.6) and that there is a  wildlife corridor that runs from the Town Moor, through the junction of Jesmond Dene Road and Osborne Road and the Little Moor to the Metro line (8.2.7).  The previous proposals for the Blue House Roundabout were identified as potentially having these effects on wildlife:

• construction phase: loss or degradation of habitat; mortality of protected species; damage to retained trees (8.4.1);
• operational phase: severance / fragmentation of habitat and disturbance due to changes in lighting and traffic volumes (8.4.1).

2. Cultural heritage and historical significance

The EIASSR also acknowledges the Town Moor’s historic status, by noting that it was granted as common land by King John around 1213 and that its boundaries are largely unchanged (Appendix D).

The EIASSR also confirms that Newcastle City Council recognise that the Town Moor is a special space and that it is one of 6 areas in Newcastle considered to be of “exceptional landscape value” and that development that will “demonstrably harm” it will not be allowed (7.1.3).  Figure 7.1 in Appendix C confirms that both Duke’s Moor and the Little Moor are included in the definition of “exceptional landscape value”.  All 3 moors are also  designated parkland (7.1.8), and the Town Moor and Duke’s Moor are considered to be an “Area of Countryside Character” (7.2.7).

Section 6 gives details of the buildings and other items of cultural heritage in the area of study, but concludes that they are “low value” (6.3.1), with the exception of the Town Moor Boundary Stone (pictured right, a grade II listed building deemed “medium value” by the report), the Town Moor itself and the conservation areas of Gosforth and Jesmond Dene.

The Blue House itself is a locally listed building, as is the Laing Memorial Fountain (pictured left), and both of these could have been affected by the previous proposals (6.4).

Another locally listed building close to the Blue House is the Colvill Memorial Fountain (pictured right).

What threatens the landscape of the Town Moor?

1. Japanese Knotweed

It may seem surprising that an area of exceptional landscape value could also be “land in a contaminated state”, but the Town Moor is due to the presence of Japanese knotweed.  One risk of the proposed construction works is that they risk spreading this species (8.4.1). The EIASSR does not contain any information about action being taken to remove this species.

2. Air pollution

The Blue House Roundabout is within the South Gosforth Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) (see map right for the extent of the AQMA) due to the high levels of nitrogen dioxide in this area.  The readings quoted in the EIASSR confirm that levels of this pollutant are decreasing, however some readings are still in excess of the air quality standard, and the AQMA is still required (5.2.3).

The EIASSR considered that proposed development had the potential to cause air pollution which would have affected public health in the following ways (5.4.1):

• changes in traffic flows/composition/speeds could affect pollutant concentration
• changes in location of sources of air pollution due to changes in the road layout could also affect pollutant concentration, and
• construction related dust emissions could affect dust deposition rates.

The EIASSR does not include any other pollutants as the AQMA has only been declared for nitrogen dioxide.  However, SPACE for Gosforth’s own monitoring of pollution on Gosforth High Street (one of the roads leading to the Blue House roundabout) detected levels of another pollutant, fine particles, that were always above the WHO levels for that pollutant, and at times above higher EU level.  Nor does the EIASSR include any discussion of the many medical conditions where air pollution is thought to be a contributing factor.

3. Noise

The previous proposals for the Blue House and Jesmond Dene Road had the potential to increase noise levels, both from construction work and any increase in traffic (10.4).  For more information about current noise levels in Gosforth, Defra have an interactive map showing estimated noise levels from major roads, railways and industrial premises.  The EIASSR confirms that the junction of Jesmond Dene Road and Osborne road is within an noise important area associated with the metro line  (10.2.1).

4. Water

The original proposals had the potential to affect both the drainage systems on the Town Moor and the Ouseburn (11.4.1), to cause water pollution to surface water (11.4.3), and also to adversely affect an acquifer (11.4.4).

What is missing from the report?