Roundabout talks resume
COUNCIL DETERMINED TO IMPROVE SAFETY
Reporter CRUNCH talks over the future of the controversial Blue House roundabout redevelopment are to resume today.
Newcastle City Council says it is determined to improve the Gosforth site, having said the roundabout was one of the worst accident blackspots in the city.
Original proposals were abandoned last year after around 2,000 people attended a protest rally against the plans, which critics described as “overkill”.
The council said it would “review alternative proposals” and set up an independent working group with more than 20 stakeholders, including fierce opponents of the original design.
Today, a meeting will be held at the Civic Centre where it is expected the chair of the Blue House Roundabout Working Group will present its latest views on the development.
Newcastle City Council will then take the recommendations on board and decide the best way to move forward. The chair of the group had expected to make a recommendation on the design to the council before the end of last year. But at a meeting in March, John Dales, the independent facilitator from the national Transport Planning Society, noted: “Further modelling work on the junction had unfortunately not been completed because of work pressures in the team of consultants who do the modelling for the council.”
At the meeting, Mr Dales added that progress had been made since the previous meeting in December – but said the group was not in a position to recommend a plan for a redeveloped roundabout. Another topic of discussion hinged on forecasts for the number of vehicles using the junction in the future, with a target of reducing the predicted traffic demand by around 10% by 2031.
Back in December, a public meeting in Jesmond heard the possibility of demolishing the Blue House – which belongs to the Freemen of Newcastle and is occupied by one of the caretakers of the Town Moor.
At the time, Brian Mark, of Jesmond Residents’ Association, suggested there might be “great difficulty” in getting the go-ahead for demolition, saying there is a question over listed building status.
Although feedback from the working group highlighted different views on its history and purpose, the group seemed to favour keeping the Grandstand Road site.