Gateshead Council

09/20/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/20/2024 05:55

New housing plans and road layout for vital route into Gateshead

20 September 2024

Plans to redevelop a prominent gateway into Gateshead are taking important steps forward this month.

Land around the A184 Askew Road, close to the Redheugh Bridge, features housing development sites both east and west of the bridge, with fantastic views over the Tyne gorge.

The Council is working with Keepmoat Homes to develop the site east of the Redheugh Bridge to provide approximately 90 new homes, including both private and affordable, as part of our regeneration plans to encourage more housing in and around the town centre.

On the western side of the bridge we also hope to shortly announce a developer to continue the regeneration of the former Clasper Village area, bringing further new homes to the area..

To support the hundreds of new homes and the residents who will live there, Gateshead Council is working to provide better transport links of all kinds from these sites into the town centre and down into Riverside Park by the side of the Tyne, and make the area more residential in character and more welcoming.

Reducing the dominance of the road and planting trees will make the area more attractive and create a new and improved residential neighbourhood whilst helping with our boroughwide target of planting 100,000 trees by 2030.

The A184 Askew Road, which used to be a busy dual carriageway carrying over 600,000 journeys each month to and from the A1, Tyne Bridge and Gateshead town centre, is now quite lightly used.

Daily vehicles numbers are 21% down overall at around 16,300 and eastbound traffic has fallen even further - by 32% since through traffic has been discouraged.

We aim to provide a road network better suited to neighbourhoods where people live, and provide a new access into the housing site, and we are bringing forward a project to redesign the A184 Askew Road as a single carriageway route in either direction and improve the pedestrian and cycling links to the town centre and beyond.

This £3m project is designed to transform the look and feel of the area, and benefit surrounding sites too.

The highways works are part paid for through funding from Homes England and Network Rail contributing to the scheme's budget, recognising its wider benefits. The project costs are also offset by the sale of land to the housebuilder.

The housing development could not go ahead without the alterations to the road, creating both a left and right turn out of the site.

The council's strategy has been to strengthen links between the town centre and the riverside, as well as the Railway Quarter, and this new investment in Askew Road will develop this further.

Residents of the new housing to the north of Askew Road will be able to safely access the town centre, the river, and the bridges across the Tyne.

Formerly St Cuthbert's Village, built in the late 1960s, the estate did not stand the test of time and all the flats on this northern section of the site were demolished by 1995.

Only St Cuthbert's Court, south of Askew Road, survives from the original estate.

The existing concrete footbridge over Askew Road will be demolished, with a new pedestrian crossing to be installed in its place.

A weekend road closure will be required to allow the safe removal of the bridge. Diversions will be in place.

The space occupied by the existing dual carriageway will be repurposed to provide a single carriageway road, footpaths and cycleways, and landscaped areas with trees, to create a more attractive residential environment, and encourage more people to reach destinations like the Quayside and Railway Quarter.

Gateshead's Railway Quarter is an independent business quarter which spans across the streets close to the High Level Bridge and Tyne Bridge.

Work on transforming Askew Road is expected to take 11 months to complete.

Anneliese Hutchinson, Interim Strategic Director for Economy, Innovation and Growth at Gateshead Council, said: "We are really excited to see many new homes planned and built to help support our town centre, in great locations close to where people work and socialise.

"It's important for residents to be able to commute quickly, healthily and safely to work and schools.

"This project is part of a wider strategy the council is implementing to address the dominance of motor traffic in and around the centre of Gateshead and the quays area and encourage more people to live in, work in and visit our town centre.

"We want to create an attractive town centre with pleasant areas of new housing well connected to the centre and the river - to the places people want to go, and where we want to see businesses thrive."

Following the development of this housing site on the eastern side of the Redheugh Bridge, we expect the next site to come forward will be land on the western side of the bridge, formerly home to Clasper Village - a 1970s development demolished in 2016.

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