Just look back to my ” Never mind the Bollards ” post and you will see a different looking picture. It is almost beyond belief that they thought a trial Low Neighbourhood Zone was required to find out whether it was a good idea.
At certain times of the day the congestion , in residential areas such as these , is a problem . However, you would expect any changes would have to be an improvement , not the reverse.
Shutting Jesmond to traffic was detrimental to the residents and a total nightmare for local traders who I expect will have taken quite a big hit on the bottom line. From the start the plan was not properly thought through. Leaving one road open was a recipe for disaster and maybe they had just forgotten about the effect on blue light services and taxi and private hire providers. Hardly in the interests of the residents.
It is amazing how quickly order has been restored. The roads were very peaceful when the restrictions were in place , but to be honest , Jesmond Dene is very close to all of this if you want to go for a walk in the park.
A lot was made of the improvements for cyclists , but there are not that many that use it and they can still use the roads without the bollards. Just imagine the number of people who had cars on both sides of the bollards so that they could get to work or other places depending on which direction they were going.
These pictures were taken at a fairly busy time of the day and it shows that it was not a 24/7 problem.
The blacked out signage do not completely hide the misery of several months.
Looks a little bit like urban graffiti to me.
What a difference a week can make.
Just looks aweful.
The only surprise to me is that they have actually reversed the decision. Previous schemes were not cancelled and closing bridges in Gosforth regularly causes gridlock problems that can go on for ages. Stationary traffic just causes pollution so the scheme cannot really use that as an excuse for the hardship that this has imposed.
The scale of the closures is quite extensive.
This will be a welcome sight to many local people.
The other side of the road that was responsible for the scheme.
Traders in Cradlewell have been hard hit and will be overjoyed at the change of policy.
These roads look pretty quiet to me.
Roads near the Dene are back to normal.
Let us hope that in future a bit more consultation is carried out before schemes are imposed.