Poor Air quality is well known for its ability to make people ill and to shorten lives and has been linked to cancer, asthma, stroke and heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and dementia. You may have heard of Alive After Five, the late night shopping initiative in Newcastle City Centre that has free parking as a major feature to attract shoppers. SPACE for Gosforth has had a long-standing concern that driving is the only means of transport being promoted for access into the city at this time and that this is contributing to illegal levels of air pollution in Newcastle City Centre.
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SPACE for Gosforth submitted evidence and feedback to several consultations in 2017. Here is the response to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Department for Transport (DfT) joint consultation on 'Improving air quality: reducing nitrogen dioxide in our towns and cities.
The intention of the consultation was to seek feedback on the Government's draft plan, which set out 'proposed actions to meet air quality standards within the shortest possible time'. Read more [...] 
Newcastle City Council have announced they will be holding a Policy Cabinet meeting to discuss the plan that Newcastle has been asked to create by the Government in order to ensure the currently illegal air quality in the city meets legal targets in the shortest possible timescales. This event is open to all interested stakeholders. 
As part of its draft Development and Allocations Plan, Newcastle City Council has set out the detail policies that it believes will help it achieve the objectives set out in The Core Strategy and Urban Core Plan, and which together will guide how the city is to be developed up to 2030.
In this second blog on the draft DAP we want to look at proposed policy DM10 covering pedestrian and cycle movement. 
Every year the Council is required to provide an annual status report covering its Air Quality Management Areas (AQMA) in the City Centre and in Gosforth. Figures have just been released for 2016 and, contrary to the longer term trend, there were significant increases in pollution across many sites in Gosforth and in the City Centre. 
The Government has announced its Air quality plan for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in UK (2017). The objective of the plan is to reduce concentrations of NO2 around roads where levels are above legal limits and to do so within the shortest possible time. To achieve this the Government has directed local authorities to create their own draft plan to achieve this by March 2018. 
Killingworth Road closes 20 July. SPACE for Gosforth and Bike4Health have arranged a Killi Road Bike Train to Quorum to help commuters from Fenham, Spital Tongues, Jesmond and Gosforth beat the traffic! 
One of our members was so concerned about idling engines by his children's school - so he decided some education was needed! 
Newcastle City Council has announced the start of the works to replace the Killingworth Road Metro bridge and widen Killingworth Road. From 20 July 2017 for up to nine months, Killingworth Road will be shut to all traffic including people walking and cycling. Salters Bridge and Castle Farm Road will also be shut to motor traffic.