Archive: Environment & Transport Open Meeting

Transport and the environment are key themes for the Ouseburn Valley. We're holding a meeting for anyone interested in the green spaces, roads and parking in Ouseburn Valley to find out what's happening and get involved - please do come along and join in.

5.30pm Thursday 18th January at The Cycle Hub

Much has been achieved over the past few years but there is still an awful lot more to do. We are, however, in the fortunate position where there is potentially funding for both transport and green space work in the Ouseburn

At this Environment and Transport Group meeting  we intend to cover some of the key issues and areas for this group. After this we will split into two groups - Clean Green Ouseburn and Ouseburn Transport Action Group - to carry out work in the coming weeks and months some of which is set out below.

Green Spaces

Ouseburn has an unusually large amount of green space for such an inner city area. It has not been looked after or used very well - although in the last five years Ouseburn Futures' Clean Green Ouseburn programme has had hundreds of volunteers and made a start on cleaning up and managing the valley (using tools we had acquired through a LEAF grant).

This is becoming important as more families and children visit the valley and we have an increasing residential population. We understand that Ouseburn has not been included in the transfer of parks to a Trust and we are talking to Newcastle City Council about a more formal arrangement (probably Adopt a Plot ) for us to manage the open spaces.

There's a lot more we can do to manage our green and open spaces, including -

• continue with volunteer days, we need more supervisors to do this
• list and prioritise improvements to woodland paths etc - funding available
• complete Adopt a Plot arrangements with Newcastle City Council
• secure remaining funding and recruit green supervisor
• graffiti removal programme
• woodland management programme
• on-going training
• adapting to climate change

Transport and parking

As the buildings and sites in Ouseburn get more intensively developed and we get more visitors the pressure on transport increases - we want a safe and pleasant environment but people need to get here and move around. Needs are very complicated and as Ouseburn Futures found with the DIY Streets project we both need to be practical and balance different stakeholders aspirations.

On the Transport front the current live issue is PARKING - Newcastle City Council are about to activate time-limited and charged parking in the central area of the valley. This is intended to stop city centre commuter parking and create more spaces for Ouseburn use. We spent some time two years ago consulting and negotiating reduced rates and charges and we need to monitor the effect of the scheme. We also need to press the City Council into carrying out phases 2 and 3 as soon as possible as well as taking a view on off-street parking requirements on Spillers Quay and Ouseburn Central Car Park.

Other tasks to follow up on transport and parking:

• Refresh the transport section of the Ouseburn Regeneration Plan

• Feed into Council transport proposals already in the pipeline - improvements to the junction by the Biscuit Factory, Ingham Street car-park and signage improvements

• Identify key areas where existing and new Council funding could be spent

• Monitor how DIY Streets settles in, and the delivery of the Heaton and Ouseburn Streets for People project 

If you would like to help whether through practical work, planning, publicity or fund-raising, we hope to see you at this meeting or get in touch to let us know your interests.