The following has been sent to Gateshead Council calling for a more attractive, sustainable and people-focussed central Gateshead.
The Gateshead branch of North East Public Transport Users Group (NEPTUG) believe it’s time for Gateshead Council to put local residents, businesses and visitors first by rethinking the use of space in our town centre and its surrounding land.
Until only a few years ago, central Gateshead gave the impression that its priority was to funnel large volumes of motor vehicles through the area. Contributing little to its prosperity or local economy other than noise, air pollution and congestion, the area has been left strangled by dual carriageways and several vast road junctions. Such infrastructure is an unattractive barrier to the free movement of people walking and wheeling, and leaves an area equally unattractive to developers.
Located immediately south of Newcastle City Centre, Newcastle Quayside and Gateshead Quays, it would be reasonable to assume central Gateshead would’ve otherwise been ripe for development, bringing much needed housing and jobs to the area and increasing patronage to existing businesses and services in the town centre. But who wants to live or work next to busy dual carriageways and major road junctions, let alone visit such a place?
It appears all hope is not lost, however, as Gateshead has started following other towns and cities by moving on from the car-centric designed infrastructure and land use of the 1960’s and 70’s. In recent years Gateshead begun turning a corner for which it should be commended. Steps have been taken towards a more attractive and sustainable place to live, work and visit. Changes to Wellington Street, Hills Street and the eastern end of Askew Road have greatly improved those immediate areas, changing them to somewhere worth visiting, rather than somewhere to be avoided.
As a result of the changes, it’s also now more inviting, pleasant and safer for people to walk and wheel in the area, and spend time at the independent businesses in the recently rebranded Railway Quarter. The changes to Askew Road better connect the town centre with the Railway Quarter and High Level Bridge as there are no longer four busy lanes of traffic fighting to squeeze through, and instead priority has rightly been given to buses which transport large quantities of people through the area much more efficiently. Recent changes to Lambton Street have calmed that road too, reducing rat-running through the Old Town Hall quarter, and we look forward to the changes being made permanent to improve the public realm there too.
By making it easier and more attractive for people to move around on foot between Newcastle and Gateshead’s centres, and closing the gap between the two through simplified and narrowed roads and turning over wasteful surface car parks to thriving mixed use developments, the economy and attraction of Newcastle city centre would surely start overspilling to the Gateshead side, if it were equally as dense, vibrant and populated.
The stretch of Askew Road between the Redheugh Bridge and the A184, a former busy dual-carriageway, has seen less traffic as result of the nearby road changes mentioned prior, allowing it to become a single-carriageway with the left-over space to be reallocated to a much-improved walking and cycle route, with new trees and planting. A new family housing development is set to follow, something previously unimaginable with a congested 40mph dual-carriageway present and associated concrete footbridge and narrow pavements.
This brings us, however, to the Gateshead Highway. Whilst the severity of disruption and financial burden this huge concrete scar presents has certainly intensified over the last year, its demise presents Gateshead with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for major transformation. With the looming concrete decks, ramps, dingy subways and sprawling junctions gone, what remains is prime urban land, a stone’s throw from the town centre, a short walk/wheel/ride to the Quays and Newcastle city centre, and with an operational Metro line and two nearby stations already in place.
We therefore write in support and encouragement of the ideas for a new boulevard and neighbourhood, replacing the Highway with an attractive, healthy, sustainable, and people-focussed mixed-use development. Given the good public transport links and proximity to Gateshead town and Newcastle city centres, any new development there should be of appropriate density, and low levels of car ownership should be encouraged through design. The transport hierarchy should be clearly applied to the development of this area, right down to the detail of continuous pavements and cycle lanes over junctions so that people walking and wheeling (and then public transport) are truly prioritised over private vehicles. Manual for Streets gives good guidance for such developments in urban areas. These measures have been introduced successfully in countless other towns and cities, both in the UK and abroad.
It is only when people are provided with, and enabled to use, viable alternatives to the car that they begin to do so. Through good design, active and public transport use becomes the default as it is the quickest and most convenient option. If Gateshead Council do not take this opportunity and get it right, we will end up with a run of the mill low density suburban development, where residents become locked into a life of expensive car ownership and are less likely to use local services and businesses by foot/bike/bus/Metro, and instead hop in their car and drive to out of town supermarkets and retail parks, adding to the area’s pollution and congestion, taking us right back to square one.
We therefore urge Gateshead Council to work with leading architects who have envisaged urban developments like The Malings in Newcastle, Marmalade Lane in Cambridge, or The Phoenix in Lewis, to turn this area dominated by an unloved relic of the past into a cherished place for the future, with attractive homes, greenspace, new urban parks, and workplaces. For the outer pockets of land destined primarily for residential use, the council should aim to replicate many of the design features found at Staiths Southbank in Dunston, where people, housing density, and green and play spaces are often prioritised over vehicles.
We look forward to supporting your ambition to make Gateshead town centre and surrounding land into a sustainable, healthy, and prosperous place to live, work and visit.
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