At the Your-Streets Your-Views survey feedback meeting at Trinity Centre at the end of January we asked residents for ideas on how to build a better Gosforth. In particular:

1. Opportunities for more trees and greenery.
2. Routes to school and how to make them safer.
3. Suggestions to reduce traffic on busy residential streets.
4. New locations for or changes to crossings on main roads.

These were the top four answers from residents in the Your-Streets Your-Views survey for how to build a better Gosforth.

To help with this we shared a few ideas from around Gosforth as examples of what has already been done.

These were:

• Yetlington Drive – No through route to vehicle traffic.
• Rectory Terrace – Narrowed junction making crossing easier.
• Ivy Road – A road hump, so the Ivy Road crossing is level with the pavement.
• Alwinton Terrace – An entrance / exit to allow cycles through a no vehicle route.
• Graham Park Road – Trees placed in the carriageway as traffic calming.
• Hyde Terrace – No entry for vehicles. Cycles are allowed.
• Station Road – A side road turned into a bus bay to allow buses to stop out of the way of passing traffic.
• Ilford Road – Pavement build-outs so it is not as far to cross the road.

We split into three groups. Residents had about 30 minutes to discuss their area and come up with ideas for what might be possible. Clearly, with such a limited amount of time these are just ideas for what might be possible rather than fully developed proposals. It does show though that there is quite a lot of potential to build a better Gosforth if the opportunity allows.

Group A – Regent Centre

1. Junction of High Street/ Christon Road/ Regent Farm Road – this should be a single phase crossing so as to reduce the risk of overcrowding in the pedestrian refuge, particularly at school pick-up and drop-off when the volume of pedestrian traffic crossing makes the refuge dangerous.
2. Junction of Regent Centre/ High Street/ Holywood Avenue – the bus exit should have its own sequence.
3. East of High Street from Marks and Spencer to Christon Road – this path should be a shared space for pedestrians and cyclists so as to reduce the need for cyclists to use the High Street cycle lane on this extremely busy section of road.
4. Reduce the retail section of the High Street to one lane, adding in off-road bus stops and re-greening with trees.
5. Re-green Regent Farm Road at the Partnership House/ swimming pool roundabout; remove the south and west section of the road around the roundabout to create a park (it was noted that the roundabout is much too large for the volume of traffic and re-greening the area could create a much needed outdoor space/ park for local residents, office workers and “commuting” children).
6. Great North Road cycle route – whilst this was generally applauded, it would be preferred to have a segregated cycle lane, off-road. It was mentioned that this route felt unsafe for children and casual users of bicycles.
7. Regent Centre carpark/ park and ride – the group differed in their approach to this. One of the group said that plans had been drawn up to renovate the multi-storey car park at a cost of £3-4m. Some in the group saw this as necessary to reduce High Street traffic and encourage bus/ Metro use. Others thought the cost/ benefit of this was not favourable as the capacity of the car park is restricted to 60 spaces and there could be better use of those funds to encourage other methods to reduce traffic congestion.

Group B – West of Gosforth High Street

1. More trees on Salters Road (west side).
2. Add zebra crossings on Salters Road where there are currently traffic islands.
3. Add a protected cycle lane on Salters Road.
4. Provide for walking and cycling access from Salters Road to St Nicholas / Baronswood.
5. Reduce through traffic on Linden Road by replacing the roundabout with an arrangement where traffic heading south on Linden Road would have to turn right and traffic heading west on West Avenue would have to turn left (and vice versa).
6. Reduce through traffic on Elmfield Road by introducing an arrangement where traffic heading east on Elmfield would have to turn left at Park Avenue and traffic heading west would have to turn left at Westfield Drive (and vice versa).
7. Reduce waiting time for people who want to cross the road at pedestrian crossings on the High Street.
8. Continuous pavement over side streets on the High Street. [See e.g. this blog for how this might work.]
9. Stop through traffic from Ashburton Road to Elmfield Park.

Group C – East of Gosforth High Street

1. Pedestrianise (as far as possible) St Nicholas Avenue from the High Street to Gosforth Central Park.
2. Residents only parking near South Gosforth Metro.
3. Time-based restrictions on the bridge over the Metro on Stoneyhurst Road.
4. Remove parking near South Gosforth school.
5. Reduce through traffic by stopping vehicles accessing Rectory Terrace from The Grove.

Thank you again to everyone who participated in the survey, and those that turned up on what must have been the coldest night of the year to find out the results and discuss ideas.

If you have any thoughts or ideas to add to these please do share them via the comments below or via our Facebook Group.

The Council consultation on how to improve the city for walking and cycling runs until 8 March 2019 if you want to contribute to that.