Various parties have outlined differing viewpoints on the future of the now-infamous 161m stretch of Jesmond land that is Acorn Road in the form of open letters and public petitions.

Since the release of informal consultation results and the involvement of MP Nick Brown, a number of groups have petitioned the council about its plans for the road.

Two campaigns are urging the council to begin work immediately on the option which was chosen in a recent consultation, while Cllr Peter Breakey is leading supporters of an amended Option 2 proposal which would reduce the number of parking spaces lost.

In a letter to Newcastle East MP Nick Brown, Cllr Breakey urges the MP to step in and suggest the council postpone its decision on the fate of Acorn Road until the signatures of the various petitions have been taken into account. Cllr Breakey said in his email to Brown that he believes it “incumbent upon you to do so.”

Cllr Breakey’s campaign is based on an analysis made by a local resident and architect, planner and urban designer of over 40 years, Colin Haylock. In his analysis Haylock raises concerns about an apparent lack of a safety audit before the plans were drawn up saying: “I find it questionable that apparently no safety audit has yet been conducted on the proposals – even though the consultation leaflet clearly claimed that safety would be improved by it.”

In conducting his own analysis of Acorn Road traffic, Haylock concluded that “the predominant direction of flow is actually west to east – not east to west as has consistently been claimed in the Council’s promotion of the Option 1 proposal.”

Status quo proposal gains more than 1,000 votes

In his letter to Brown, Cllr Breakey claims approximately 1,250 people have signed a petition stating that they oppose the Option 1 proposal and would like the council to re-evaluate its decision to go ahead with the plan. Roughly 750 are local residents or traders based in North Jesmond, Cllr Breakey has told JesmondLocal; a further 500 are from patrons of Acorn Road who live outside of the North Jesmond ward.

The letter goes on to say that the supporters are in favour of an “amended version of Option 2” (which they say would reduce the number of parking spaces lost.)

It had been thought that there was a deadline by which the funding for the project would have to be used, but Cllr Breakey denies this saying: “it seems that the claims which have been made, and reported in the press, that government funding would be lost if work does not start soon have turned out to be nothing more than scare stories.”

Pro-change campaign goes online

In stark contrast to Cllr Breakey’s campaign, former North Jesmond by-election candidate Shehla Naqvi began her own petition to the council encouraging it to proceed with the Option 1 model immediately, citing the petition as being “in response to the incorrect and emotive comments made by a North Jesmond councillor in relation to the Council proposals to improve Acorn Road.”

In their letter to Cllr Ged Bell, the responsible officer, the campaign says: “Our petition calls on the Newcastle City Council to urgently tackle the problem of poor provision for pedestrians around the city, and to resist calls for further delay on Jesmond’s Acorn Road to immediately implement a scheme based on illustration 1.”

With 33 supporters publicly visible on its Change.org page, the campaign has significantly fewer signatures than the pro-Option 2 campaign, but nevertheless it is clear that the supporters feel very strongly about their views. Sharon Thomas said: “I have lived all over the UK and Newcastle is the scariest City for cycling” while Oskar Avery wrote: “Option 1 was the clear democratic will of the people and will improve accessibility for cycles, parents with pushchairs and the disabled”.

Student support for Option 1

A third petition is led by ‘Spoke NCL’, a student-led Newcastle cycling organisation. The group’s Facebook page describes them as ‘a student-run advocacy group campaigning for safe, convenient cycle infrastructure on routes across the city with a specific focus on those frequented by students.’

In their petition the organisation also calls on the council to uphold the decision to go ahead with Option 1, saying: “Unfortunately a small group of residents refuse to accept this democratic process and are attempting to block the scheme.”  The group criticises the fact that the consultation regarding Acorn Road took place in August and early September and was completed before the start of the university term meaning “most students didn’t receive the information until after the consultation deadline. Given the huge number of students in Jesmond, this is a massive oversight by the council.” The Spoke NCL campaign currently has 14 supporters.

In a statement a council spokesman told JesmondLocal: “The council is considering the residents’ petition [organised by Peter Breakey] that was handed into council on Wednesday. No formal decisions have yet been taken on Acorn Road.”

Read next:

• Leaked emails show argument over Acorn Road consultation terms
• Acorn Road: who wants what?