Until the new bypass road is built and operating and commercial businesses have been canvassed on the effects of narrowing.
This week Blyth Town Council heard a plea from local councillors and a leading well known cycling member of the public (both reports reproduced below) regarding the proposal to narrow Cowpen Road, Northumberland’s busiest and most congested urban highway and move national cycling route 1 onto a newly created cycle path without a planned outlet to move back onto route at its exit point.
Blyth Town Council members at the meeting fully agreed and most members present expressed the opinion that residents across the piece were very concerned about the negatives of narrowing such a heavily used A Class Highway when a sustrans safe route cycling network is already constructed and well used right across the Town.
The outturn of the meeting was an instruction to the the Clerk to Blyth Town Council one of the largest Parish Councils in the UK to write to the Chief Executive of the Northumberland County Council and seek a commitment that the scheme is shelved until a bypass for Cowpen Road is opened and industry and commerce are happy their trade and jobs are not affected by the project.
A Member Led Report
Written for members of Blyth Town Council.
Aim of the report:
To assist Blyth Town Council members in choosing to influence the Northumberland Local Transport Plan (LTP) with regard to the proposal to narrow Cowpen Road.
Background:
Northumberland County Council is reopening the former Ashington, Blyth and Tyne Line renamed the Northumberland Line to passenger transport. Residents of Blyth and both north and east Cramlington will benefit from the siting of two stations within the Parish boundaries of Blyth, one at South Newsham and one at Bebside.
A priority of the County Council is to develop sustainable walking and cycling travel routes between the town centre of Blyth and both stations within Blyth Parish boundaries.
Currently the station site at South Newsham is generously served with well established cycling and walking routes using an element of national cycle route 1 and the sustainable route developed by sustrans from south shore to Cramlington which passes by the new station.
The County Council, is, at the time of writing this report undertaking ground pressure testing and route surveying to develop a dual carriageway from the station site at South Newsham to the Three Horseshoes Roundabout to relieve pressure on the current highway infrastructure and lessen traffic congestion on Laverock Road (A1061), exiting and entering Blyth from the A189 spine road, the A192 towards Seaton Delaval and Durham Road/Northumbria Road elements of the Cramlington ring road complex.
The County Council are also suggesting the moving of national cycle route one from its picturesque passage via Blyth’s tidal estuary switching it to Cowpen Road. That development, although prime in sustainable travel ideals, includes the severe narrowing of Cowpen Road, which according to traffic surveys and county council available information is Northumberland’s most congested urban highway.
Cowpen Road services Blyth’s Riverside Industrial Estate, The Port of Blyth’s modernised Bates facility, renewable energy traffic using Blyth Catapult, Roll on Roll off dock at Anne Street, two branches of Asda, Aldi, Lidl, Homebase numerous other businesses and major fast food outlets, three schools are also linked and it is used heavily by emergency service vehicles accessing the estates adjoining Cowpen Road two of which sit in the top 5% of deprived wards in England and others in the top 10% making Cowpen Road a main artery of need and use by the Emergency service sector.
Proposed Highway Changes:
Northumberland County Council in its local transport plan have suggested narrowing Cowpen Road for vehicular traffic and the construction of a walking and cycling pathway as shown in fig1.
Fig 1
This NCC sketch visually describes the width of the cycling and walking route in comparison with the proposed width to be retained for vehicular traffic on Cowpen Road. They compare equally in size.
Various other proposals include the removal of right turn pockets.
The removal of pedestrian safety islands.
The segregation of vehicles at all junctions giving priority to the Cycling and Walking way.
These changes are explained in detail here.
Blyth Town Problems for Members to Consider.
As an individual member of Blyth Town Council I know like myself colleagues are not anti cycling and walking and can see the health benefits of activity travelling sustainably to and from the new station at Bebside, nor am I proposing to other members and County Councillors that this potential sustainability project should be stopped ad infinitum but the pitfalls of completing this project before completing other projects that sit in the County Councils future LTP program are manifold and will affect many lives. I do hope through this report to paint a picture that will engage with Blyth Town Council and local County Council members on the pitfalls for local people and that there are alternative ways to achieve the outcomes in the LTP at a lower cost and be much safer and beneficial for local people.
i Northumberland County Council have a long term bypass plan for Cowpen Road in train which is designed to spread the current standing traffic across the wider Blyth North network through junctions onto Tynedale Drive and Ingram Drive that will share the load and could potentially be the catalyst of a change of highway width on Cowpen Road when the bypass is finally constructed and opened.
ii Without the opening of the Cowpen Road bypass, narrowing the highway on Cowpen Road and the removal of right turn pockets will cause greater congestion for eastbound traffic which will come to a standstill at every right turn on the highway and this will increase congestion and grow much worse at peak times at every junction where people need to turn right in both westwards and eastwards directions.
iii The difficulties facing drivers who wish to turn right and use the commercial shops and premises sited off Cowpen Road may deter or change their shopping habits as once behind the wheel they can undertake their shopping and trading anywhere. I am not aware of an equality impact assessment or a socio economic impact study being undertaken with commercial and business operators on Cowpen Road, if they are available I would like the Clerk of Blyth Town Council to access them for members’ perusal?.
iv The increase in standing traffic in both directions will reduce air quality for residents of Cowpen Road, this in areas of deprivation is known to lower life expectancy and is the catalyst for Clean Air Zones in many cities including Northumberland’s neighbour the City of Newcastle. In recent years information on the difference in life expectancy between residents in Cowpen and Residents in Cramlington which has very low levels of standing traffic has been openly publicised and we need to know if any air quality deterioration projections have been undertaken by NCC in reference to the proposed project?
v The removal of pedestrian safety islands will certainly split the communities which surround Cowpen Road and deter many of the elderly from crossing at peak times and the expected rise in standing traffic will also be detrimental for home to school travel as some County Council members will remember that a child was struck by a car in front of County Council planning committee members when visiting Horton Road school a few years ago and that was with crossings in place.
vi The preference towards vehicles having to sit back at junctions giving preference to cyclists and pedestrians is a real danger in itself and will further increase accidents with the inability of cars to view the highways clearly and the reckless parking of large vehicles ignoring no parking signals using food outlets on Cowpen Road with the serious potential for problems at McDonalds who currently often have cars out onto the highway at lunch and tea times causing even greater disruption and increased danger on Cowpen Road.
vii Highways Repairs have always been difficult on Cowpen road but the current width of the highway allows works to be undertaken by utility companies and NCC using traffic lights. The narrowing of the highway will lead to the need for diversions and road closures. With Northumbrian Water often having to open up the highway to handle springs surfacing opposite St Cuthbert’s Church and the suggestion the highway weight shift to that side of Cowpen Road then road closures are inevitable moving forward.
viii Emergency services vehicles and blue light access, as previously stated Cowpen Road is a main artery for emergency vehicles as the estate roads contain a high number of speed reduction infrastructure. The complete clarity of travel is essential for emergency vehicles and now that Blyth has neither an ambulance station nor a fire station within its bounds it’s even more so. As shipping and Industry increases with the Port of Blyth storing high level stocks of marine fuels also there being filling stations, engineering and transport companies on the Riverside Industrial Park and Cowpen Road, jamming in emergency services vehicles with high levels of local traffic who will be unable to access verges once they have been removed etc is a disaster waiting to happen. Has the fire chief commented on this change and if so what were his comments?
ix Parking NOTE: on the lower reaches of Cowpen Road in Croft Ward residents park on the highway. Narrowing the highway at this point will cause problems for families in this area and as the gardens are very short for driveways to be beneficial for any family with more than one vehicle in use problems and differences will certainly grow.
Possible Alternatives/Options
During late 2016, Councillor Susan Davey, following her project to have safety measures increased on Cowpen Road itself had an alternative route opened up through the Riverside Industrial Estate accessible from the traffic lights at Maple Crescent and the opening opposite Blyth Cemeteries historic main gates to try to spread the traffic.
Since Cycle Route 1 at its lower end is now accessed from this junction it would be an easy task to redirect that route through the industrial estate where the traffic is very much lighter and pick up its original junction and direction of travel towards Bedlington at its western end.
Whilst on this subject it may be beneficial to have an alternative route to Blyth and alternative route to Bebside signage put up at these road extremes that may help improve air quality along Cowpen Road by expanding the network a little wider.
Northumberland County Council has had an excellent cycling and walking bridge put across the A189 spine road across to Starbucks cafe. They have produced a map of cycleways in South East Northumberland that can be accessed here
It shows the number of cycling and walking links including some along Cowpen Road that are deemed safe routes that were developed by sustrans. These routes with the exception of Cowpen Road are very well used by high school students, home helps, care workers and locals to access other estates and cross town to Newsham as there is no direct cross town highway to speak of. Cowpen Road is not a very well used cycling and walking route due to the number of vehicles using this highway. It’s expected that these alternative safe routes as illustrated will be the ones used by those travelling to Bebside station as they feel very safe to those who currently use them daily.
Conclusion:
1 As alternative routes for cycling and walking have been identified and cleared by sustrans as being sustainable safe routes as printed in the Map issued by Northumberland County Council leading within 400m of the new cycling and walking bridge across the A189, I urge Blyth Town Council Members and County Council members to support the delay in narrowing Cowpen Road until clarity on the effectiveness of the proposed bypass on traffic flow has been measured following its completion.
2 That the Cowpen Road existing route is deemed to be much less responsible for the zone's low air quality using data collected at more than the one site currently used.
3 Also that the impact on commerce and businesses have been truly assessed and determined using nationally accepted measures for change.
Councillor Grant Davey
Kitty Brewster Ward,
Blyth Town Council.
Letter by email from a resident
Dear councillors (and friends!)
I am writing in my role as a resident who regularly cycles along Cowpen Road, but also as the chair of one of south east Northumberland's largest cycling clubs, (Barnesbury CC) and of Northumberland and Durham Cycling Association, which organises and promotes cycling events throughout the region, and which has hosted national championships in and around Blyth as recently as last year.
I note that the Town Council is to receive a briefing on Tuesday night about the proposed improvements on Cowpen Road. The paucity of stakeholder consultation on these proposals (and cycling organisations must, by definition, be stakeholders in such a proposal) is troubling, So is the lack of information about the proposals. In the absence of any committee papers being published by the council I can only assume these are the same proposals that were published in 2022 and which can be seen here.
Although I am by training a place management professional, I am not a highways designer, so I'll limit my comments, which I hope will be reflected in Tuesday night's discussions, to the conceptual issues I think the proposed corridor raises.
1. Bebside roundabout north; the limit of the proposals appears to be Chase Farm roundabout and the pedestrian crossing to the west of it. From a carcentric perspective that makes sense, but from a cyclists perspective no details are provided of how or if the scheme is to link up to NCN1. Currently NCN 1 uses Lonsdale Avenue to connect to the bridge over the River Blyth, after which cyclists are expected to manouvre down an ill maintained narrow shared path with a hairpin bend to then proceed along the B1331 or alongside the A1147. The failure to explain how cyclists on NCN1 will be encouraged to use the new facilities on Cowpen Road is a significant conceptual error and reflects a failure to try to understand what cyclists currently do. From a place management perspective some 'welcome to Blyth' signs or branded way marking would be a worthwhile investment.
2. The existing riverside route; currently cyclists coming to Blyth often choose, in order to avoid Cowpen Road, to either use the industrial estate roads, or access (via Furnace Bank)the shared use path from Furnace Bank alongside the river to come out either at Cowley Road or Chain Ferry Road. No explanation is given in the scheme as proposed of how the existing (and very popular route) will connect to the new scheme. Again, it is as if the proposals have been drawn up without looking at what cyclists actually do. There's no excuse for that when data is available (e.g. via Strava Metro) - I'm enclosing a Strava heatmap of the routes cyclists take.
3. The missing links at either end of the scheme. At the western end of the scheme at Chase Farm Roundabout the proposal seems to suggest that cyclists wishing to reach the new Bebside Station should use the road to connect to the new foot and
cyclebridge over the A189. This seems an obvious error when there's plenty of verge on either side of Chase Farm Drive to create a segregated cycle path. Similarly, at the eastern end of the scheme, it appears as if cyclists are expected to go all the way down Beaumont Street to Keelmans Terrace, rather than providing a north south link via Kimberly Street, Wright Street and Gatacre Street to Bowes Street. Given how many cyclists seem to use the existing very narrow footpath along the
western end of Morrisons there is a clear desire for such a route, but no proposal for provision.
I'd be grateful if councillors could take these views into account when receiving the briefing on Tuesday night, and could ask whoever the decision makers are on this scheme to address these concerns.
