Newcastle's halted Blackett Street pedestrianisation a 'wasted opportunity'

Blackett Street is currently a busy route for buses

The shelving of plans to permanently pedestrianise a busy city centre street has been called a "wasted opportunity".

Led by Nick Forbes, Newcastle City Council had wanted to ban traffic from Blackett Street but "deferred" the scheme after he was ousted and replaced by Nick Kemp.

It said it had paused the plan until it could be fully funded as part of a "comprehensive package of measures".

But Labour councillor Stephen Powers said "inaction shouldn't be an option".

Halting plans for one of the city's most polluted streets was "a massive shame and wasted opportunity to do something meaningful to tackle dangerous levels of pollution", he said.

Blackett Street has periodically been covered in artificial turf

Blackett Street was temporarily made into a vehicle-free zone during summer events and for the city's 2019 Christmas markets, dividing opinion among councillors, residents and cycling groups across the city.

Before Mr Kemp took over in May the council had been expected to trigger a public inquiry in a bid to make pedestrianisation permanent.

Liberal Democrat opposition councillor Thom Campion said the new delay left "Labour's plans for our transport system and roads in disarray" and was "leadership by bonfire".

Newcastle City Council said pedestrianising Blackett Street would make the city safer and greener

Walking and cycling activists said pedestrianisation would have made an "enormous difference" to creating a connected cycle route.

Sally Watson, of the Newcastle Cycling Campaign, said: "At the moment you cannot safely cycle from one part of the city to another through the city centre. 

"It is very hard to understand what the plan for the city centre is now."

But some groups worried closing Blackett Street risked isolating elderly and disabled people who rely on its bus stops to get into the heart of the city.

Bus operator Stagecoach claimed to have lost 120,000 passengers when the road was shut during Newcastle's Christmas markets in 2019, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Artist's impressions were created to show how the pedestrianised street would look