December 2016 – Newcastle Cycling Campaign

A year of REAL debate

26th December 2016 Katja News

Another year has come to an end; and I will attempt to quickly write up some of my thoughts about the last 12 months. It was a year of extremes: a protected cycleway was finally built on John Dobson Street, but was darkly overshadowed by the horrendous road-building plans of the Northern Access Corridor. Campaigning was, more than anything, an emotional rollercoaster this year. Never mind the varying quality of plans, on the whole I simply wished council’s programme would have been clearer, better projected and outlined, as that would have given us more time to properly prepare our position[…]

Blue House Roundabout and Jesmond Dene Road – where is the cycling?

5th December 2016 NewCycling Uncategorized

A public outcry in response to their Blue House roundabout plans forced Newcastle Council to go back to the drawing board. To the council’s credit they have gone back to basics. Newcastle council invited local groups to discuss what should happen here, and to discuss the impact these decisions will have on a future Newcastle. A representative from the newcyling’s Committee has attended all of the Blue House roundabout working group meetings – this is five meetings to date. A number of designs have been examined (see www.bluehousegroup.org) and they have prompted lengthy discussions. The case for change Although the groups agree that the council[…]

A visit to Waltham Forest’s Mini-Holland

3rd December 2016 Newcastle Cycling Campaign News

The upcoming second phase of Newcastle’s Cycle City Ambition Fund includes plans to reduce traffic and improve conditions for walking and cycling in neighbourhoods close to the city centre. Jesmond, Sandyford, Heaton, Ouseburn, Fenham and Arthur’s Hill are all part of the ‘Streets for People’ initiative. These were in part inspired by plans in progress in London called ‘Mini-Hollands’. Waltham Forest is the first of these to get going and we thought that it would be good for a group from Newcastle to go and take a look at what they had done so far. I accompanied a group of[…]