Man on a bicycle overtaking a van parked in the bus lane on Gosforth High Street

Gosforth High Street Bus Lane Decision

Man on a bicycle overtaking a van parked in the bus lane on Gosforth High Street

Newcastle City Council has confirmed the outcome of its Gosforth High Street bus lane trial.

In a Twitter/X post featuring a long out-of-date picture of Gosforth High Street, the Council announced the decision, saying that they are “investing in your commute” by making the bus lane on Gosforth High Street permanent.

In doing so, the Council have acknowledged that the intention of the trial was never to support High Street businesses, nor to enable people to travel safely to the shops. 

https://twitter.com/NewcastleCC/status/1831694501494059415

In the associated news story, they claim that “data has shown that the bus lane has had a minimal impact on other journeys”. The only data about “other journeys” shared in the story to justify this statement relates to journeys through the High Street by car.

No consideration appears to have been given to people travelling to the shops, nor to the impact on people walking or cycling to, along or across the High Street.   

Safety Considerations

The Council’s delegated decision report does acknowledge there has been what the Council phrases “a slight rise in injury collisions”.

They say “There have been 8 collisions involving personal injury on High Street since the introduction of the ETRO, 18 months ago. As a comparison, in the 5 years before the ETRO there were 20 recorded injury accidents.”

Data from the NE Road User Casualties Dashboard shows there have been ten injuries due to road traffic collisions since April 2023 when the bus lane was installed, all on different dates and all between Elmfield Road and Salters Road. This suggests the Council may have missed two collisions from their analysis, possibly more as the data will not yet be up to date for the full 18 months the ETRO was due to run.

Of the Council’s “20 recorded injury accidents” in the 5 years before the ETRO, 4 were south of Elmfield Road leaving sixteen between Elmfield Road and Salters Road, an average of 3.2 per annum, compared to 9 in the first year of the ETRO. Hardly a “slight rise”.

The Council go on to say “When looking into the collision reports in some more detail, the presence of the bus lane infrastructure is not attributed as a contributory factor in any of those accidents over the past 18 months.” We have submitted a FOI request to the Council to ask for these collision reports, but our assumption is that these are Police incident reports. It is extremely concerning if Council officers are relying on Police reports to assess the safety of a road layout rather than using their own professional judgement and highway design best practice and standards.

In our FOI we have also requested the Council’s analysis (if it exists) of whether the bus lane trial meets the objective set out in the original ETRO to “avoid danger to persons or other traffic using the road [Gosforth High Street] and for preventing the likelihood of any such danger arising”. This is a much higher, and more appropriate, standard than simply ‘not attributed to’.

Conclusion and Next Steps

SPACE for Gosforth believes the Council has prioritised speed over safety, and has failed to properly consider the impact of the scheme on most users and uses of Gosforth High Street.

Council decision making right now feels incoherent – for example compare the Gosforth High Street decision to Heaton LTN where safety was given as a reason for removing the scheme without any injuries being recorded, and to Jesmond where driving from the front to the back of someone’s house was given as a key reason for removing the LTN.

Our suspicion is that the Council was under pressure to claim Gosforth High Street was a success whatever the evidence, after having failed in their attempt to improve road safety in Jesmond, Fenham and Heaton, having given up on Blackett Street and ending the School Streets programme with only four School Streets implemented. If they had not decided to retain the bus lane it would have been the fourth ETRO in a row to be removed.

We have written to Councillor Kilgour (Acting Council leader) and Councillor William (Cabinet lead for transport) to seek answers. You can see our letter below.

One possible silver lining is that the Council have recognised that “A common theme of the feedback from the people taking part in the consultation centred around a perceived lack of active travel as part of the scheme.” and that they “are working on a separate phase [originally promised March 2023] to provide safer routes for more vulnerable road users that will not only encourage the use of the High Street as a destination but also provide improved connections to schools and other local amenities.”

They have also said in answer to a question at September’s City Council “The Council is committed to ensuring the success of district centres and as we have set out, we are committed to improving road safety, creating better public transport links and encouraging active travel around the Gosforth High Street area.”

Our expectations for this further phase is low though, certainly as far as cycling is concerned. This is partly due to the perception that the Council do not currently view road safety as a priority but also because the bus lane between Elmfield Road and Salters Road will prevent direct cycling access to the shops (because Gosforth High Street is multiple destinations not just one) and will act as a barrier preventing the implementation of safe crossings to connect residents with schools and other local amenities on the other side of the High Street to where they live.

We also believe it will do little for High Street businesses. Being able to cycle safely with children, and move safely between shops on Gosforth HIgh Street by bike, will (and has been proven to) help local businesses. Saving 90 seconds on a bus journey after most of the shops have shut will not.   

SPACE for Gosforth’s letter to Newcastle City Council 

Dear Councillor Kilgour and Councillor Williams,

Re: Gosforth High Street road safety concerns

We are writing to express our concern about the Council’s recent decision to make the Gosforth High Street ETRO permanent despite serious concerns about the safety of the road layout.

On 28 April 2024, we wrote to Councillor Kemp and Councillor Williams to ask them to expedite the removal of the failed Gosforth High Street bus lane trial due to the dramatic increase in injuries on the central section of Gosforth High Street in the year following implementation of the ETRO. 

Since then:

  • Neither they, nor the service our letter was forwarded to, have responded to our letter. 
  • No changes have been made to address safety concerns.
  • Councillor Woodwark had to table a formal question at June’s City Council before the Council would even acknowledge the existence of safety concerns on Gosforth High Street.
  • In Councillor Kemp’s response to that question, despite it being six weeks after we sent our letter, he said he was still “’not sure whether there is an upward trend in accidents”.
  • A further injury occurred on 17 May 2024 to a 21-25 year-old motorcyclist by the junction with Hawthorn Road.
  • The Council has published its report saying “there have been 8 collisions involving personal injury on High Street since the introduction of the ETRO” whereas the NE England Road User Casualty Dashboard clearly shows ten separate injuries all on different dates (see diagram below), casting doubt on the Council’s analysis.
  • Despite all the above, the Council has made a decision that the ETRO design will be retained, despite officers advising that the design does not meet the Council-adopted road safety standard LTN1/20.
  • The Council has not published collision reports nor any explanation of why it believes the trial layout was not in any way responsible for the increase in injuries, instead advising us (via social media) that if we have doubts about the Council’s analysis (which it hasn’t published) we should submit a FOI. This we have done.

Graphic showing location, date and type of 10 collisions on Gosforth High Street between April 2023 and May 2024

We had hoped that, as a minimum, when the Council published its delegated decision report it would include an assessment of the injuries recorded and whether the ETRO had achieved the aim set out in the Statement of Reasons to “avoid danger to persons or other traffic using the road [Gosforth High Street] and for preventing the likelihood of any such danger arising.”

This is the right standard to use. This is why streetlights are installed to make it safe to walk in the dark, and why the PCC has committed to safer public transport. 

Instead, the delegated decision document claims that the collision reports (which the Council has not published) say “bus lane infrastructure is not attributed as a contributory factor”, a much lower standard than ‘preventing the likelihood of any such danger arising’.

Even this is contradicted by Councillor Kemp’s response to Councillor Woodwark’s question, in which he said “Two of the bus accidents involved vehicles changing lanes at West Avenue.” which would not have been possible prior to the ETRO being implemented as there was only one north-bound lane.

Release the Safety Analysis

The Council (via social media) confirmed on that it had “closely analysed accident data”. As a first step the Council should publish this analysis as soon as possible to reassure the community that the Council still takes the safety of residents seriously. 

We believe the Council has a number of further questions to answer regarding the Gosforth High Street trial and the decision to retain the bus lane between Elmfield Road and Salters Road. 

  1. Did you seek or receive any advice from officers relating to road safety on Gosforth High Street following our letter of 28 April 2024?
  2. Did you authorise Council officers to lower the safety standard against which the Gosforth High Street would be assessed (from preventing danger to simply avoiding blame)?
  3. Was the Council’s failure to implement improved road safety in Jesmond, Heaton and Fenham a factor in the decision making for Gosforth High Street? We are concerned the bus lane may have been approved to avoid another Council PR disaster.
  4. How do you explain the inconsistency between the decision to retain the dangerous ETRO layout as the starting point for further measures and Council decisions at Jesmond, Heaton and Fenham to remove LTN measures and start again from scratch, despite minimal evidence of danger?
  5. Why have proposals “to make it safer, easier, and better for people to get around on foot and on bike” still not been published despite a commitment on 20 March 2023 “to share in the coming months”? 
  6. Why did Cabinet Members sign off a design not compliant with the LTN1/20 cycle design standard having previously supported the unanimously agreed November 2022 City Council motion requesting proposals for Gosforth High Street “are designed to the highest possible safety standards for both pedestrians and all road users, including LTN1/20”?
  7. Is the commitment (para 9.6 of the delegated decision report) to “address any road safety issues in the next phase of proposals” a genuine commitment or simply a device to deflect from the Council’s failure to address safety concerns during the ETRO?
  8. Will the Council commit to a safe future design that will allow all ages and abilities to cycle safely to and between the shops on Gosforth High Street, and which meets the LTN1/20 standard that Council Cabinet confirmed under your leadership “would apply to all schemes brought forward by the City Council”? 
  9. Will the Council commit to adopting the Road Collision Reporting Guidelines and stop using the term “accident” which (to quote the guidelines) “risks making crashes seem inevitable and unavoidable”? 
  10. Given the decisions at Jesmond, Fenham and Heaton, the recent closure of the school streets programme, and long overdue lack of action to improve safety at Linden Road and Hyde Terrace in Gosforth, how does the Council leadership expect residents to believe both that the Council still considers their safety when travelling to be a priority and has the means and will to do something about it?

We look forward to receiving your answers to these questions. 

We have also published this email on our website [link provided].

Copies sent to

  • Gosforth Ward Councillors and
  • Councillor Ferguson and Councillor Penny-Evans as Chair and Vice Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Coordination Committee.

Kind Regards, 

SPACE for Gosforth

Timeline and References

 

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