Parking Cull And Pocket Parks For England’s Finest Street As Newcastle Plans Post-Pandemic Future

“As for the curve of Grey Street,” wrote poet John Betjeman, “I shall never forget seeing it to perfection, traffic-less on a misty Sunday morning.”

That 1948 remark about the traffic-free perfection of one of England’s most beautiful streets could be about to come at least partially true—many of the lucrative fee-generating parking spaces on Newcastle’s iconic Neoclassical street are to be removed, making room for a cycleway and more space for pedestrians. And it’s all thanks to COVID-19.

Newcastle is the latest city to unveil pandemic measures to curb motor vehicles and, in addition to culling parking spaces from what renowned architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner called the “finest street in England.”

Newcastle City Council will be introducing pop-up cycleways, widened sidewalks, and more 20mph streets. Longer-term Newcastle is also considering a workplace parking levy and road charging, including for ultra-low emission vehicles.

These measures are “pro-city,” says the council, not “anti-car.”

Grey Street was built in the 1830s and runs downhill from the 130ft monument erected to celebrate the Northumbrian-born Prime Minister Earl Grey, who kickstarted Britain’s modern democracy with the 1832 Reform Act.

Hard cell

As well as transforming Grey Street, Newcastle City Council proposes to “implement the same format of roadspace reallocation to local shopping centers and schools.”

Newcastle will also be introducing “red routes” on major through routes where no stopping will be allowed by motorists. The menace of sidewalk parking will also be tackled, said the council.

A Ghent-style traffic circulation plan will be implemented over time. In 2017, officials divided this Belgian city into six zones and, through signage and hard infrastructure, motorists were diverted on to distributor roads rather than being able to drive directly from zone to zone. Furthermore, a small central zone, including much of the old town, was closed to cars completely. Driving in the six outer zones—or “cells”—was still possible, but car journeys became longer. 

Pedestrians and cyclists were not subject to the same restrictions, and could travel swiftly into central Ghent. Because of this ease of use, and fewer cars, there was a massive jump in the amount of people who cycled in the Flanders city, rising 60% between 2016 and 2018.

Newcastle’s version of this traffic circulation plan would be a low-cost way of making a “walking and cycling network to connect every school, to every park, to every local shopping center,” said a council document.

Blight

In the 1970s, Newcastle was cut through with an urban freeway network—the Central Motorway—that Alderman Donald D Gilbert, chairman of Newcastle’s Traffic, Highways and Transport Committee, described as the time as a “moderate solution to the car-versus-city question in which the tremendous benefits of the private car can be retained and exploited without detriment to the social and economic life of our City Centre.”

In reality, the Central Motorway destroyed much of the city center. Recognizing the faults of the past, Newcastle City Council now says it wants to “reassert the supremacy of the city over its traffic.”

The city is to introduce a “compelling vision” for the future “set within the context of a recovery from a pandemic that has threatened public health and economic activity.”

This vision explains there will be “long-term gain to offset any short-term pain; a vision that’s not anti-car, but pro-city.”

The council says, “experimental changes to our transport network can facilitate a new way of envisaging our future.”

Temporary changes will soon be made to “widen [sidewalks] and reallocate roadspace to walking, queuing, bikes and buses in city center, radial routes and in neighborhoods.” Next year “low traffic neighborhoods” will be “extended across the city.”

These “temporary changes to roadspace reallocation” will be “made semi-permanent or altered in response to experience and changes to the progressive relaxation,” suggests the council.

An experimental traffic regulation order will be used on Grey Street to “change the allocation of space.” The council says, “we are signaling our intention to maintain this new use of space into the long term.”

Motor vehicles would have one-way access to a narrowed carriageway, cyclists would have a cycleway and pedestrians would get 5 meters more sidewalk, and there would be pocket parks in place of parking spaces. Although some spaces would remain, “[parking] prices would be increased.”

In the near future “on-street parking should be removed,” and “parking should be located toward the edge of the city center.”

Speed

“New measures and road layouts, starting in the city center, will be introduced quickly,” said a council statement, “in some cases from as early as next week.”

Plans are being developed to manage the flow of people walking and queuing on the city’s main shopping streets, including the introduction of one-way pedestrian systems and markings on the ground to indicate two meter “social distancing.” City’ marshalls’ may be used to help people understand the new system both for how to get about the area, and where to queue.

In addition, pedestrian crossings will be re-set throughout the city center to give more frequent priority for people using them.

“This will help to avoid large groups having to gather together while waiting to cross the road,” says the council.

“Our city is facing a huge economic challenge in terms of its recovery from coronavirus,” said Nick Forbes, Leader of Newcastle City Council, “and we know that working together is the best way we can support one another to get us back on our feet.”

He added: “It’s important that our immediate focus is on how people can safely move around with proper social distancing and space to walk and cycle, which people are choosing to do increasing numbers. We will be looking closely at how these short term and essential measures that we are introducing now can help us move towards the city that we want future generations to be able to enjoy.”

“We know some people will choose to make journeys by car, but we would strongly recommend going by bike or on foot wherever possible,” said Cllr Arlene Ainsley, cabinet member for transport and air quality at Newcastle City Council.

She added: “It is vital that we don’t revert back to the idea that it is acceptable for the car to be the default option as in the longer term this will have serious implications for our environment and our health.”