A public inquiry into controversial plans to pedestrianise one of Newcastle city centre’s busiest streets is set to be triggered.
City councillors granted their approval on Monday night for an inquiry to be held into proposals to ban traffic from the Blackett Street bus route, as Newcastle's Labour leader warned that the area must not be allowed to "die and lapse into obscurity". The idea forms a key part of Newcastle City Council’s £50m vision to redesign the city centre and pedestrianise a huge section of it, which would also include the entirety of Grey Street, to create a cleaner, greener environment for shoppers and workers.
But the thought of removing vehicles from Blackett Street, plus New Bridge Street West and the northern section of Pilgrim Street, has sparked a series of concerns – particularly from bus operator Stagecoach. There have been complaints that the move will prevent people who rely on buses, particularly the elderly and disabled, getting to the heart of the city centre and over the potential for rising congestion and air pollution caused by rerouting services onto a new bus loop.
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At the local authority’s cabinet on Monday, transport chief Coun Ged Bell said that talks would continue with objectors until a public inquiry to rule on the plans is held and that he felt the fears aired are “not insurmountable”. The cabinet granted consent for the local authority to trigger the inquiry and prepare its case in support of the scheme, to be presented in front of a government planning inspector.
Council leader Nick Forbes said that bosses had “no pre-determined outcome” about the plans and that “all views are welcome and valid”. But he likened the situation to the removal of traffic from Northumberland Street and the resulting outcry in the 1980s, saying that “nobody in the right mind would consider reopening it” now.
The outgoing Labour leader, who will leave city politics in May, added: “The fear of change is often a barrier to doing what is right, in the long term interests of the people who use the city centre. “It is important to hear the variety of perspectives that will inevitably surface from this consultation process, but it is also important that we do not simply allow the city centre to die and lapse into obscurity.
“We should be proud of the city centre, we should be ambitious about the number of jobs we are seeking to create there, and think of our city centre as an exemplar of what modern city centres should look like, particularly for pedestrians, in the future.”
It is thought that it will take around five months for an inquiry to start once the council makes a formal request to the planning inspectorate.Even if it is ultimately approved, the pedestrianisation will not happen until next year at the earliest.
700 people responded to an online council survey about the plans – with 287 objecting, 276 in support, and 137 undecided.
