Comments on: Newcastle’s final air pollution plan has been watered down with no measures planned until 2021

By: Stewart Falconer

Stewart Falconer — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 12:24:00 +0000

8000 additional houses being built north of Gosforth with only two routes into Newcastle- Gosforth High Street or Ponteland Road –
Reducing the Tyne bridge to one lane only actually increases pollution- stationary vehicles produce more gases
Should be more bypasses and more parking in Gosforth -additional cycling facilities for the 1% of road users – is a joke – the cycle lanes are not used anyway
The council now charging for electric car parking
The plans are a going to be totally ineffective
Pedestrianise Gosforth High Street but give us parking nearby and a bypass

By: SPACE for Gosforth

SPACE for Gosforth — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 21:58:00 +0000

In reply to Iain Williams.

Hi Iain,

We have tried to judge the plans on whether they will be effective and meet the minimum legal requirement. As you can probably tell we think there is a substantial risk they will not.

John Dobson Street, St Marys Place and surrounding areas also have illegal levels of pollution according to the most recent official measurements. Adding additional traffic at those locations would probably make them worse, and make it harder to meet legal limits.

By: SPACE for Gosforth

SPACE for Gosforth — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 21:52:06 +0000

In reply to Anon.

Hi,
Thanks for this, I think you shared this via a previous blog as well?

The pollution monitors used for the @AirHeaton, @AirGosforthHiSt and @AirBlackettSt all use Urban Observatory monitors so in that sense are not official measurements anyway, but they are measurements and do give a regular indication of pollution levels.

We do publish official measurements as well. These are the most recent ones from 2017.
https://www.spaceforgosforth.com/aq2017/

By: Anon

Anon — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 19:29:43 +0000

While I appreciate the excitement about air quality monitors at junctions like Corner House, the relevant EU legislation governing CAZ (2008/50/EC Annex 3) states that:
‘for all pollutants, traffic-orientated sampling probes shall be at least 25 m from the edge of major junctions and no more than 10 m from the kerbside’, so even if they were high-precision, calibrated, AURN-standard stations, they likely wouldn’t be actually applicable for assessing compliance with NO2 limits

By: Iain Williams

Iain Williams — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 18:51:20 +0000

I feel the revised plans are sensible although I feel the restrictions on accessing the central motorway need to be mitigated by reversing the recent decision to ban cars from the end of John Dobson Street