Newcastle speeding drivers tackled as 'rat-run' bridges to shut

They include Salters Bridge in Gosforth, where 18,000 vehicles per week are caught speeding

Speeding drivers are to be tackled with the closure of "rat-run" bridges across Newcastle.

The city council said the shutting of five small bridges will also allow for greater social distancing for pedestrians and cyclists.

They include Salters Bridge in Gosforth, where around 18,000 vehicles per week have been caught speeding.

The council said a consultation will be held when the routes close in August.

The other bridges to close are Castle Farm Road in Jesmond Dene, Haldane Bridge in Jesmond, the Argyle Street Bridge near Manors Metro station, and Stoneyhurst Bridge in South Gosforth.

A council spokesman told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the bridges were plagued by high levels of traffic cutting through residential streets to avoid main roads.

The closures will be made using Experimental Traffic Regulation Orders and a public consultation will take place to decide whether to make the changes permanent.

Audrey Macnaughton, of the Garden Village Action Group, said the previous two-year closure of Salters Bridge during roadworks had had a "positive impact."

She said: "If the lockdown and social distancing has taught us anything it's that space needs to be reallocated with people in mind, not cars and vans."

Since it reopened last October, the council has issued numerous warnings about speeding and to heavy lorries ignoring weight restrictions on the Grade 1 listed medieval Salters Bridge. 

Arlene Ainsley, the council's cabinet member for transport and air quality, said: "Although these schemes were developed to aid social distancing, they also form part of our ambitions to ensure a safer, greener, transport network - not choked by traffic and pollution."