The Newcastle City Centre Air Quality Management Area

On 26 July the Government 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.

Clearly, just waiting for natural vehicle replacement as proposed by the Capita report will not fit this criteria.

Newcastle and Gateshead

For Newcastle and Gateshead, DEFRA has identified locations on the the A1 bypass, the Coast Road and the Tyne Bridge where air quality is the worst. The latter two are part of the Newcastle City Centre Air Quality Management Zone, which we wrote about here. That’s not to say that Newcastle City Council can ignore air pollution in the City Centre itself, which is still over the limit, or in Gosforth where levels currently just under the limit could be made worse as a result of induced traffic from road ‘upgrades’ or from additional traffic from poorly planned new estates on the edge of the city.

Looking at the Google Traffic website (see below) it is clear that these locations, which are all on major roads, are already heavily trafficked. Green routes on the map below mean traffic is flowing freely and red routes are where there is heavy traffic. This snapshot was taken during the summer school holidays so at other times of the year could be even worse.

We also have data from the TADU website on the number of vehicles that were using these routes each week day in 2015:

• A1 bypass: 65,189 vehicles (at Blaydon Bridge)
• Coast Road: 57,650 vehicles (A1058 west of Station Road, Wallsend)
• Tyne Bridge: 69,155 vehicles (A167 Tyne Bridge – on north side)

Clearly these traffic volumes are more than those routes can cope with and still have free-flowing traffic.

Google Traffic – Live Traffic at 5.30pm 27 July 2017. Click the image to see the current traffic levels

Although it is often stated that adding road capacity to relieve congestion is a good way of reducing air pollution, studies have shown this is not the case. Congestion, as well as slowing traffic, also acts as a limit to the total amount of traffic and therefore pollution on a route. Where roads are widened to include additional lanes that invariably leads to additional ‘induced traffic‘ and possibly also to higher levels of pollution.

For the A1 bypass this could be a serious issue. Traffic widening on the section identified by DEFRA has already happened and further widening, further north and south, will cause even more traffic to use that route. The required plans will need to take account of this and introduce measures that counteract this effect.

Gateshead Council’s plan will also need to involve the Gateshead Metro Centre given the high levels of traffic (and therefore pollution) it generates and the impact of that pollution on customers and staff. While there are options for how to access the Metro Centre, massive incentives such as 10,000 free parking spaces, funded indirectly by all customers whether they drive or not, and hundreds of millions of pounds of tax-payer funded investment in surrounding roads means that most people who can drive will. With the imperative to act on air quality it is unlikely that such a skewed model can be sustainable.

Highways Agency A1 upgrade plans – from the A1 Scotswood to North Brunton Improvement Scheme brochure

Time for Action

The new plans to be proposed by Newcastle, Gateshead and North Tyneside Councils will need to be a step change from the current plans if they are to meet the Government’s directive of meeting air quality targets in the shortest possible timescales. Now the Government has delegated planning to local authorities, Councils also have an additional incentive to do this as if they do not they could be liable to legal challenge. In Germany this is already happening and Stuttgart has just been ordered by a court to restrict access to the city by diesel vehicles from 1 January 2018 because the plans they had produced were inadequate.

Newcastle City Council has already started consulting with stakeholders including bus companies and business owners about how to address air pollution, which is a good start. It also urgently needs to engage with residents to set out a vision of a healthy city with clean air, vibrant local centres and good quality choices for how we travel including walking, cycling, bus and metro. In doing so it can turn this ‘negative’ that has blighted the health of generations into something positive for the future of the city and the surrounding region.

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