Get our bridge open
COMPLAINTS ‘OUTWEIGH PRAISE’ IN COUNCIL REPORT
OPPONENTS of a controversial bridge closure in Newcastle have demanded an immediate end to the council experiment, after a report revealed most public feedback deemed it “ineffective”.
Campaigners who have railed against Newcastle City Council’s closure of Stoneyhurst Bridge in South Gosforth have written to local authority leaders calling for the crossing to be reopened by early next week.
The ‘low traffic neighbourhood’ site was one of five small bridges through residential neighbourhoods that the council banned traffic from last August, in a bid to stop alleged rat-running and create safer and cleaner spaces for walking and cycling.
An interim report detailing the broad findings of a six-month public consultation was released this week, with Stoneyhurst identified as the location where the reaction has been “notably more critical”.
While the council has so far refused to release data showing how many people supported or opposed the closure, the report found that it was “felt to be ineffective by a majority” of responses and “attracted a number of concerns which clearly outweighed praise”.
The complaints have included increased traffic congestion on surrounding roads, increased stress for drivers “due to perceptions of a lack of safe alternative routes”, lack of access for emergency vehicles, and particular harm caused to the elderly and disabled who rely on car travel.
Members of the Room For Us All campaign, which has opposed the traffic ban, wrote to city council leader Nick Forbes and chief executive Pat Ritchie to call for the bridge’s reopening.
However, the council reiterated that all five of the bridges will remain shut at least until after May’s local elections and said that the decision process had to be “fair to everyone, not just the most vocal”.
A spokesperson for the Room For Us All group said: “The battle with the council about the future of the Stoneyhurst Road bridge had become a community enterprise undertaken not just on behalf of our elderly and disabled but also on behalf our key workers, our craftsmen going about their lawful business, the delivery vans who serve us and for every resident who has been negatively impacted. Therefore, we want our bridge opened next week at the latest.”
Concerns have also been raised about the experimental closures being “undemocratic in the absence of prior consultation and in the midst of a pandemic”.
Fans of the scheme have said it has improved safety, promoted more walking and cycling, and reduced noise and air pollution.
Sally Watson, of the Newcastle Cycling Campaign and the Safer Stoneyhurst group backing the council’s plan, said there had been “a lot of scaremongering” about the closure and that the council needed to “properly analyse the data” before coming to its final decision about whether to make the change permanent.
She added: “The people commenting could be anywhere, we don’t know how it differs between people on either side of the bridge, or people who are further away.
“They will also want to look at some of the other data – people are saying it is causing air pollution, but if the data says it is not then we need to know that.”
The local authority has reported that “a number of people” made repeated comments on the Stoneyhurst closure – with just three people being responsible for 46 formal written objections to its Experimental Traffic Order.
The other sites involved in the closure experiment, which could legally last up to 18 months, are Salters Bridge in Gosforth, Castle Farm Road next to Jesmond Dene, Haldane Bridge in South Jesmond, and Argyle Street Bridge next to Manors Metro station.
A Newcastle City Council spokesperson said: “We have clearly set out the process for the public consultation on the closure of five local bridges to vehicles so it is fair to everyone, not just the most vocal.
“This consultation generated considerable interest and we need to take the time to consider all of the responses, both for and against. A decision on the longterm future of the bridges will be made from mid-May onwards.”