The city council recently released a master plan for Forth Yards, a future development on land surrounding the current location of the arena, west of the city centre. The plan looks at the potential of turning 52 acres of old industrial land in to a modern development containing thousands of homes and other amenities.

The council wish to hear from current residents of the city about what they think of the plans. You can take part and share your own views before the 23th December 2025 via the council’s Let’s Talk website.

Newcastle Cycling Campaign have taken a look, specifically at the Movement section of the document.  A few points that we considered are detailed below.

It is without doubt a positive thing to see some progress towards developing such a large part of the city that currently remains mostly unused. The indicative CGI images that have been released so far suggest the future development could be  a pleasant, people focused location that makes the most of its location close to the facilities of the city centre and natural landscape created by the proximity of the river.

However, it’s still in the centre of a city and how people get about will be very important. Being situated a short distance from the city centre and main railway station as well as close to a business park and collage means there is a lot of potential for destination to be easily reached by cycle journeys.

Being a masterplan there isn’t a lot of specific detail, but it possible to get a good idea of what might materialise in the future.

The map in the transport section of the document shows a number of pedestrian and cycle routes through the development. To the south these link up with the existing shared path along the river. Skinnerburn Road is also listed as a primary street for vehicles as well as pedestrians (and we assume cyclists, though that isn’t mentioned in the map key).

Due to the topography of the ground, Skinnerburn Road has no vehicle links in to the main part of the development between the junction with Forth Banks and the junction with Dunn Street. Shot Factory Lane, the road that currently goes past the Arena is marked as a pedestrian and cycle link. With this in mind we would like to see this stretch of Skinnerburn Road filtered for pedestrians and cyclists only. Firstly, all destinations accessible from this stretch of road can be reached by vehicle by using main roads. The car park currently at the western end could easily be reached from Dunn St and the car park just off Forth Bank could be accessed from that end. This would create a far safer, quieter and more enjoyable area of river frontage.

Secondly, with many more people living in the area once the new development is built the current path along the river is likely to see a lot more use. At times, particularly in early evenings and on sunny weekends this stretch of path can already get congested and be difficult for people to cycle along. If Skinnerburn Road was filtered there would be far more space for both people cycling and people walking. This would help to remove potential conflicts as the route is popular for both leisure and commuting by people cycling.

The movement map also indicates that there is a vehicle route through the centre of the site, with one section marked as a ‘route crossing pedestrian priority spaces’. Having a vehicle through route pass through a pedestrian area is not a good idea. Anybody who has spent any time near Blackett St will be familiar with the problems that are likely to arise. Regardless of whether the route passes through a pedestrian area or not, we don’t think a through route from Forth Banks to Scotswood Road is a good idea, as it could become used as a way of getting from the Quayside to Scotswood Road while avoiding a number of busy junctions. Ideally, vehicle access should be from either end with a break in the middle, or from one end only. Some provision would need to be made for buses, but as they are less frequent and all bus passengers begin their journey as a pedestrian that is less of an issue.

While the images and plans for the potential development give an idea of what the internal streetscape could be like another important aspect is how it connects to the wider city. There are very few links from the new development to the north where Newcastle collage is situated close by. The old railway line and arches create a bit of a barrier but there are a number of routes beneath what is proposed to become the Scotswood Line park. Currently these all lead to very hostile environments for pedestrians and cyclists in an industrial estate. It would be good to know if these links outside the development will be improved to cater for increased movement from future residents.

Additionally, the main indicative links for pedestrians and cyclists towards Central Station and the city centre are shown as along the Scotswood Line. This looks great, but is at a different level to the rest of the site so will be of limited use for somebody wanting to cycle to the station or beyond unless there are good links between levels. The movement map has a number of ‘potential’ links marked. These links will need to materialise to for the high level route to be of more than leisure use.

If there is good access The Scotswood Line could be a very useful cycle and pedestrian link in to the city centre as it would bypass a number of busy roads. This could make it a popular choice. When more detail is added we’d like to see good separation between cycling and walking to prevent conflicts and ensue the route remain useful for people wanting to cycle at all times.

The suggested future bridge over the Tyne would be good link for people cycling between Newcastle and Gateshead as current alternatives would require going east or west first as the Redheugh Bridge is very poor for cycling.

Whilst we appreciate the master plan is for a very specific area, the people who will live there in the future will not exist purely withing its boundary. As plans progress we would like to see more detail on how wider links to the development will be improved to allow future resident to access jobs and retail and leisure activities across the city while traveling by cycle.

Running to the north of the site Scotswood Road has some existing cycling facilities of fairly low quality which stop completely at the edge of the city centre, which is one of the junctions highlighted on the movement plan. It will be of no use to anybody having fantastic, top quality infrastructure in their new development if it all stops at the closest busy road.

It’s a similar picture for links from the proposed Scotswood Line. It will be great to cycle to the station, but what options are there is your journey is to the east or north of the city centre? It would be good if this major development could be a catalyst for improved cycling facilities in the city centre which have stalled in recent years.

The consultation runs until the 23rd December 2025. You can submit your views on the Let’s Talk website.