Delay in redesign of iconic street in city centre
A DRAMATIC redesign of Newcastle’s iconic Grey Street will not start until the end of this month.
Plans were unveiled in May for a major reconfiguration of the historic city centre street to give pedestrians and cyclists extra space for social distancing.
But while new cycle lanes and oneway pavements have been introduced on busy routes around the Royal Victoria Infirmary, it will still be several weeks before similar changes are made to the street once voted the best in the UK.
Cyclists have praised the measures on Queen Victoria Road as “fantastic” and urged Newcastle City Council to push ahead urgently with other projects across the city.
Northumberland Street is next on the council’s to-do list, with a one-way walking route and new queuing areas planned around the busy shopping spot as more non-essential stores begin to reopen from June 15. Work is expected to start later this week with the removal of street furniture.
However, Grey Street has been deemed a lower priority because it is more heavily occupied by bars and restaurants, which will remain closed for some time.
When the redesign finally gets under way at the end of this month, most of the on-street car parking spaces will be removed, a new northbound cycle lane will be installed, and traffic will be restricted to southbound-only.
Further plans are due to be unveiled in the coming weeks for streets around Central Station, St James’ Park, the Grainger Market, and other city centre roads, as well as district shopping areas like Gosforth High Street.
Sally Watson, of the Newcastle Cycling Campaign, said the traffic cones creating a new bike lane on Queen Victoria Road allowed her family to safely cycle down it for the first time.
She added:
“We congratulate the council for acting quickly to put in measures to help keep people safe on Queen Victoria Road, particularly RVI staff who have recently started cycling to work.
“The pop-up cycleway is a fantastic example of what can be achieved with a small budget and in a short timeframe. Temporary schemes are a great way to try new things out and we hope to see many more of them in the coming weeks.
“The government has set a deadline of July 5 for councils to bid for urgently needed funds to roll out more schemes like this across the city to enable social distancing. If they want to be considered for further funding, they need to demonstrate that the money will be meaningfully spent on reallocating road space to walking and cycling.
“Newcastle is in a strong position to capitalise on this, given that they appear to be in an advanced stage of planning compared to other cities.”
Coun Arlene Ainsley, the council’s cabinet member for transport and air quality, warned that the city centre will be “a very different place for the time being” and urged people to stick to two-metre social distancing rules.
She said: “We have seen already that there have been large queues outside some big retailers as they have reopened their stores and we want to make sure we are as well-prepared for welcoming people back into Newcastle city centre as we can be.
“While we are all keen to see our economic recovery get under way, it remains vital that we all adhere to social distancing measures that are essential for us to beat this pandemic. “We would remind people that although shops are starting to open it is certainly not business as usual and the city centre will be a very different place for the time being.
“We would urge people to use local shops and only make journeys into Newcastle if you really need to in order to avoid areas becoming crowded and ensure we continue to limit the spread of the virus.”
Coun Arlene Ainsley