For some, cars are a necessity of modern life, especially for those with limited mobility. Finding space to park though is not always easy, and with reductions planned in the popular Salters Road car park it is no surprise that people are concerned.

At SPACE for Gosforth we want to assess the impact of the changes to Salters Road car park, in particular on those who need to drive and on those who live or work nearby.

This isn’t just about shoppers or about residents. This includes parking spaces used by traders and shop workers, by office workers, by city centre commuters parking to get the bus, by those visiting the swimming pool and library or the cricket ground or the gym, by those going to churches or to restaurants, to cafes or pubs, by those dropping off children at school and by those using the Metro park and ride. All these uses need to be balanced somehow within the total spaces available, and managed to minimise disruption to residents whose support the High Street relies on.

To make this assessment we need to know what parking there is in Gosforth, so we did a survey – and this is what we found.

In total we counted 1,482 spaces. The 2014 Council plans to straighten the Salters Road/Church Road junction would result in a loss of 40 parking spaces, which would reduce this from 1482 to 1442, a drop of 2.7%, albeit that the 40 spaces are amongst the most popular with shoppers. This is how those 1,482 spaces were made up.

Salters Road, Sainsbury’s and St Nicholas Avenue	252
Regent Centre Metro Car Park	183
Swimming Pool and Library Car Park	59
Busman House and Eagle Star private office Car Parks	230
On-Street Parking (Linden Road to Moor Road)	758
TOTAL – Gosforth Parking	1,482

Below is a further break-down of spaces including charging, maximum parking times and time and use restrictions. These factors, along with location, are what determine which spaces are most used and which are left empty.

Gosforth’s Main Car Parks

Salters Road Car Park (including 7 disabled)	81
St Nicholas Avenue Car Park (including 4 disabled)	69
Sainsbury’s Car Park (including 5 disabled)	95
Parent-Child spaces (Sainsbury’s only)	5
Electric Charging Points (St Nicholas only)	2
TOTAL – Main Car Parks	252

All car parks are 30p per hour with a maximum stay of 2 hours at Sainsbury’s and  St Nicholas and 3 hours at Salters Road. Sainsbury’s is free after 4.30pm but closes at 9pm midweek and 8pm on Saturday. Salters Road and St Nicholas are free after 6pm.

Regent Centre Car Parks

Regent Centre (including 8 disabled)	183
Gosforth Library and Swimming Pool (including 3 disabled)	59
Bulman House and Eagle Star private office car parks	230
TOTAL – Regent Centre Car Parks	472

Regent Centre charges are £1 per day or free after 5pm. The car park is open 07:00 to 00:45. The Regent Centre is, according to Google, a 7 minutes walk away from Salters Road or there are buses every 3 minutes.

Gosforth Library and Swimming Pool car park charges are 20p per hour up to 3 hours maximum. Charges apply 8am to 5pm.

Bulman House and Eagle Star Office Car Parks are for office staff only between 8am and 6pm but are generally unused after that time.

Gosforth On-Street Parking

Free (no restrictions)	203
Free (8am-6.30pm 2hrs max)	119
Free (11.30am to 1.30pm and 3.30pm to 5pm)	325
Paid (8am – 6.30pm 30p/hour up to 2 hours)	92
Disabled	15
Taxi & Car Club spaces	4
TOTAL – On-Street	758

On-street parking was counted within a square bounded by Linden Road on the west, Salters Road and Church Road on the north, Moor Road on the east and Elmfield Road and The Grove on the south, with additional spaces counted at the south end of Elsdon Road (north of Salters Road) and at the west end of St Nicholas Avenue east of Gosforth Central Park. Most of these spaces are on residential streets and many, but not all, are directly outside residential properties.

Google maps estimates that Linden Road to Trinity Square is 0.2 miles or a 4 minute walk and most spaces counted, and some that were not, will be within this distance of the High Street.

Parking we haven’t counted

The 1,482 spaces don’t include:

• Parking owned by specific businesses such as The County, Have To Love and Loco.
• The car parks at the Gosforth Memorial Medical Centre on Church Road, at Trinity Church on Ivy Road or BT’s own-use spaces next to the South Northumberland Cricket Club.
• All-day permit only parking.
• Single yellow lines, which become unrestricted after 6pm.
• On-street parking north of Salters Road or north of Church Road other than the south end of Elsdon Road, some of which will be less than 0.2 miles from the north end of the High Street.
• On-street parking south of Elmfield Road or south of The Grove, some of which will be less than 0.2 miles from the south end of the High Street.
• Office car parks north of Regent Farm Road.

Together, if included, these could add a further few hundred spaces.