A local group have been working with an urban design consultancy to turn ideas about improving the experience of getting around in Jesmond into a firm set of proposals. And now it’s up to you to have your say. Newcastle City Council has opened a public consultation exercise which will run from 16th October through to 30th November.
The ideas include new pedestrian crossings; protected cycleways; the decluttering of footways; and improving public spaces.
The project is motivated by people who want children to be able to walk, scoot or ride their bikes to school, be able to play out in the streets where they live and grow up breathing cleaner air. All of this requires a reduction in the amount of motor traffic on residential streets.
Detailed plans for the proposals can be found online at streetsforpeople.org.
Or, you can visit the display in Jesmond Library or phone 0191 277 7681 for more information.
There are proposals for Jesmond as well as Heaton and Ouseburn.
The money to make these street improvements has NOT come from council tax, it’s from a national Cycle City Ambition Fund. This funding has enabled Newcastle City Council to work more intensely in suburbs close to the city centre at ways to connect the investment they have already made and add local improvements to increase the pace of change in these neighbourhoods.
The council identified three project areas: Arthur’s Hill/Fenham, Jesmond and Ouseburn/Heaton areas. There will be approximately £1 million capital to spend in each project area by 2018.
Each project has a three-stage development process, which draws on the local and technical knowledge of a wide variety of stakeholders – elected members, grassroots community groups, cycling organisations, local businesses and service providers, as well as the council’s engineers, planners, urban designers and the CAF Programme Board. The stages are:
- Stage 1: The reference group – Development of local community group to work on the project (completed)
- Stage 2: Needs analysis – A series of community engagement processes to capture the needs and issues people experience in their neighbourhoods (completed)
- Stage 3: Turning the needs into proposals – Co-design with the community to develop concept design options within the scope of the project.