A new feud has broken out over Newcastle’s latest ‘Low Traffic Neighbourhood’ road restrictions.
Closures imposed on a number of streets in Jesmond last week in an effort to stop rat-running have sparked a fresh row over council bosses’ plans to make areas safer and less polluted. Though the changes have been welcomed by some residents, opponents have complained the measures have caused chaos on surrounding roads and fear businesses in the Cradlewell will suffer as a result.
The restrictions imposed on March 6 have been put in place to try and stop drivers cutting down residential areas to get between the Coast Road and Osborne Road – with through traffic blocked from a series of streets between Osborne Avenue and Cavendish Road. But the move has been met with consternation on neighbouring Grosvenor Road, which is not blocked off and has been hit with “mayhem” as motorists who previously used the other streets divert there instead.
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Businesses have also claimed that signage installed by Newcastle City Council has confused drivers and wrongly stated that there is no through route to the Cradlewell. Moz Murphy, who runs the Grate cheesemonger, accused the local authority of being “totally hellbent on hamstringing us”.
She said: “I understand the Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) – kids should be able to ride their bikes in the street. But if I lived on Grosvenor I would be up in arms. If the council is just appealing to those people who want their kids to ride their bikes on certain streets then they are missing a lot of the population.
“On Wednesday night I walked from the shop up to West Jesmond to meet a friend and I was stopped by six different cars asking how to get out of here.”
Gill Reeve, from Dene’s Deli, called the LTN “discriminatory” because it “benefits residents in a few streets, but at the expense of the Cradlewell shops and the residents of Jesmond Vale”. She added: “It is early to know whether my sales will be affected but I expect they will be – when the council closed Jesmond Dene Road last time it cost someone a job.
“The timing now is bad because we have just gone through Covid and now we have huge rising costs with food and energy. But the council does not seem to care about businesses in Cradlewell.”
This is not the first time that LTN measures have caused a stir, with the council having run into controversy with a series of bridge closures around the city in 2020. Neil Murphy, of campaign group SPACE for Jesmond, has welcomed the latest changes – but called on the council to “finish the job” by installing traffic filters on Grosvenor Road and Avenue too.
He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “A week in, the benefits of safer and more pleasant streets in Jesmond East are already being seen by hundreds of residents. But it’s clear those benefits are not going to be felt equitably when drivers can just choose another shortcut.”
A relieved Ian Nelson, a resident of Osborne Avenue, said his streets had been the default shortcut between Jesmond’s busiest roads for years, leaving it “gridlocked and polluted” at school run times. Mr Nelson said: “The road closures have been transformational. All of the above has vanished and it is now peaceful, calm and safe, much as you would expect a residential street should be.”
Like previous LTNs, the Jesmond restrictions have been imposed on an 18-month trial basis – with public consultation happening in the first six months of the experiment. One resident of Jesmond Vale complained that the council had “gone about it in completely the wrong way” and delivered “no meaningful consultation at all”.
They added: “It has been a bit of a nightmare for a lot of people. It is quite polarising and there are people on the other side of the argument who think it will improve the residential area with having less cars. The traffic has been really bad and I feel really sorry for people living in Grosvenor Road because all the traffic is going down there now.”
The city council said that it was monitoring the impact of the LTN and would make changes “if needed”. A spokesperson said: “The scheme in Jesmond is designed to reduce through traffic cutting through neighbourhood streets and re-route vehicles on to more appropriate roads, to make neighbourhoods safer, cleaner and greener for the people who live there.
“Advisory signage has been placed in the area, to discourage traffic from cutting through the neighbourhood low traffic zone. We are aware of some displacement of traffic on the surrounding streets. However, with any changes to traffic schemes, there is often a short period when the new measures take a little while to embed, as people get used to new routes. And as with similar schemes, our team is monitoring this and will be reviewing data and can make further changes if needed.
“We’re also in contact with local businesses to hear about their experiences directly. People can tell us their views on whether or not these changes should be permanent as part of the public consultation period.”
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