A revamp of the Newcastle Quayside to keep more of the riverfront reserved for walkers and cyclists will be made permanent.
City transport bosses launched a redesign of the area last year in a bid to create a bigger plaza area next to the Tyne that could be used to stage larger events and activities, like the popular Quayside Market.
It meant that the bus lane which ran alongside the river from the vacant Plot 12 site past the Millennium Bridge to outside Newcastle Crown Court was axed, with buses instead using a new dedicated lane along the main road instead. Newcastle City Council made the change under a 12-month experimental order in July 2021 and officials have now confirmed that it will become a permanent fixture.
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It comes after a series of spectacular images were revealed earlier this year, showing how the Quayside could look in the future.
NE1, the city centre business improvement district company, published the sketches as part of a public consultation seeking people’s views on what they want to see on the banks of the river. The various images included ideas ranging from a swimming pool and Quayside beach, to pocket parks, a floating cafe, and new walkways.
A new floating nature island was installed on the Quayside last week, in a bid to bring more greenery to the riverbank and recreate habitats lost to development. The 1,000 sq ft ecosystem, the size of roughly eight parking spaces, is the first of its kind to be built to withstand changing tides and the ambition is ultimately to create a 1km-long haven for wildlife along the Tyne.
The council said that no formal objections were received to the bus lane relocation, though local councillors had raised concerns about the impact it would have on traffic levels and air quality on an already congested Quayside road. When the rerouting scheme was first launched last year, the local authority said it was seeking to “seeking to create a larger space on the Quayside that could be used to host events and activities”.
It was another in a series of changes across the city designed to remove traffic from busy areas, including installing new walking and cycling paths down Grey Street.
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