Top council bosses have faced a grilling over controversial road closures that have “divided” a Newcastle community.
Measures to try and stop rat-running through a number of streets in Jesmond have sparked fierce debate since being imposed earlier this month. Critics have claimed that a new Low Traffic Neighbourhood has caused congestion chaos on surrounding roads – something Newcastle City Council confirmed has already prompted a review of the scheme's design.
Through traffic has been blocked from a series of streets between Osborne Avenue and Cavendish Road, in an effort to prevent drivers cutting down residential streets to get between the main routes of the Coast Road and Osborne Road. On Friday morning, the council’s chief executive and another senior officer were interrogated over the contentious changes – facing accusations that they had been skewed in favour of the wealthy and risked putting the local authority “at war” with locals.
Read More: Traffic ‘nightmare’ or ‘peaceful’ haven? Jesmond closures spark new row over road restrictions
Hamish Moore, the chair of the council’s audit committee, said that such measures being imposed without prior consultation “makes it hard to comprehend” how rigorous the council’s strategies are and “does not look like good governance”. As with previous LTNs in the city, transport chiefs have installed the Jesmond restrictions on an 18-month trial basis – with public consultation being conducted in the first six months of them being in place.
Mr Moore also questioned why criteria to judge how successful the LTNs are had not been published in advance and said he did not want Newcastle to follow London into a situation where some suburban communities are “almost at war” with mayor Sadiq Khan. Wendy Lawson, an independent member of the committee, claimed the changes were creating extra pollution because of the added congestion on surrounding roads and aired fears that the closures appeared biased in favour of the rich, with the road closures benefitting “people in the £1.5m houses”.
There have been calls for the council to redesign the LTN to stop traffic being funnelled down down streets that remain open, particularly Grosvenor Road.
Council chief executive Pam Smith was tight-lipped with her views and said the Jesmond issues were a “matter of detail that I will take away and absolutely come back on”. Michelle Percy, the council’s director of place, admitted that the scheme had caused “tension” but urged patience.
She said: “It is frustrating and it is challenging. It is difficult making people change their behaviours. The cleaner, greener, safer political position is about making sure that those streets are not used as a cut-through – they are for residents to use, rather than for traffic. The whole strategy is about moving traffic onto the main roads.
“It is early days in Jesmond, but we have seen in other parts of the city that people do find a way and it changes – if it does not, then we will have the modelling on that. My view is that, as much as there is frustration, let's stick with it, collect the data, and then return to the residents and review it together.”
Bea Noble-Rogers, a resident of Hartside Gardens, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the LTN had “divided the community” and made Grosvenor Road in particular “really dangerous”. The 66-year-old added: “I don’t think closing one section of Jesmond off from another is the solution.
"I don’t know what the solution is and I am not a traffic expert, but I don’t think the impact on residents was properly considered here. I can’t see how it does anything other than increase the emissions coming from cars because it is so congested now.”
One resident of Grosvenor Road, who asked to remain anonymous, complained that “our environment has been degraded to help people in the other streets”, but said there was likely to be "no perfect solution".
Hannah Gallagher, who also lives on Grosvenor Road, added: “You can’t fit two cars down this street next to each other, so you always see people trying to pull in and out of gaps. Personally I would prefer to keep the road open, I think they should all be open. I would not want to get stuck on the main roads for a long time if all the traffic had to go there.”
But Tony Waterston, of Burdon Terrace, said the changes had been “fantastic” and made the area safer for walkers and cyclists. Mr Waterston said there were “obviously” problems on Grosvenor Road, Jesmond Dene Road, and Manor House Road becoming the main rat runs as a result and suggested installing traffic filters there too.
He said: “People will get used to the changes. The difference in time [for car journeys] is quite small – 10 or 15 minutes at most, unless you are coming through at a really clogged up time.”
A Newcastle City Council spokesperson confirmed: “We are aware of some displacement of traffic on surrounding streets as part of the Jesmond East neighbourhood low traffic zone trial. Trials means we can make changes if required and our team is busy reviewing the scheme and using data from traffic surveys to determine further mitigation measures. This is being done in consultation with the emergency services.”
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