Newcastle City Council leader Colin Ferguson has given a categorical assurance that trees on Stamfordham Road in Westerhope will not be cut down to make way for a cycle lane. Speaking at a public meeting on Thursday evening, he addressed concerns from residents who had feared that more than 30 trees were under threat from a proposed cycle route.
Public meeting addresses tree fears
More than 100 people gathered at Westerhope Methodist Church to hear Coun Ferguson respond to questions. The meeting followed a summer of anger in the village, where over 4,000 people signed a petition calling for the trees to be saved. The council had previously insisted that no such plan was being pursued, describing designs seen by local councillors as early stage proposals that were never funded or agreed upon.
Coun Ferguson acknowledged that residents of Westerhope “feel a little bit let down”. He said: “There are no plans to put a cycle lane like the one you heard about, that is going to take out trees and remove the wall and things like that. There are no plans to do anything like that on Stamfordham Road. I can give a categorical assurance of that this evening.”
Cycle lane not ruled out
The Liberal Democrat councillor for Gosforth added: “There are no plans to take the trees out and put a cycle lane in, and I see no reason to change that position right now or in the future. From my point of view, if we do want to put a cycle lane in we have to do it in a way that is sympathetic to the local area and preserves the character of the local area.”
He clarified that he was “not necessarily saying there will not be a cycle lane”, but that the council needs to assess its options and “think very carefully about what works” for the Westerhope community.
Residents raise traffic and infrastructure concerns
Local resident Chris Parsons, who presented the petition to the council last month, called on the council to put tree preservation orders in place to guarantee the protection of greenery on Stamfordham Road. Others raised concerns about traffic problems in an area already plagued by heavy queues and a shortage of public transport.
Multiple people highlighted infrastructure that had been promised to the outer west of Newcastle when major housebuilding in areas like Callerton was first proposed but has not come to fruition, including better bus services and a £60 million bypass linking the A1 and A69. One man told Coun Ferguson that he feared Westerhope was being “dwarfed” by the developments further west and that the “heart is going to be ripped out” of the village to cater for the new estates.
West Denton Way was suggested as a better location for a cycleway because it is wider than Stamfordham Road, while former Westerhope councillor Pat Hillicks highlighted a lack of safe crossing points near the Jingling Gate pub. Local resident Niamh, a cyclist, told the meeting that the reason there are seemingly so few bikes in the area is that it is simply not safe, citing anti-social behaviour hotspots, dark underpasses, and footbridges “covered in glass all the time”.
