Two long-term residents of Larkspur Terrace have outlined their opposition to the proposed path for the future of Acorn Road, which will see Option 1 carried forward into a further design stage. At the same time, a local councillor and a former candidate for election in Jesmond are involved in an increasingly personal exchange of letters around the road’s future.

Beryl Downing and Teddy Smith oppose the plans to redesign Acorn Road in the manner proposed by Option 1. Downing expressed how she and Acorn Road users felt the initial consultation, described as “informal” by council Chief Executive Pat Ritchie, was rushed and biased as there was “no option to have no change”.

Downing explained that the campaign led by Councillor Peter Breakey began as a result of a number of residents joining together due to their concerns over the future of Acorn Road following the results of the consultation. The group of residents wrote to Cllr Breakey, expressing their concern for the future of the road, and later met with him to decide what the best next step would be.

Whilst Peter Breakey has been criticised for his involvement with the petition, in his vituperative reply to Shehla Naqvi following her letter of engagement to Nick Brown, he highlighted that he is “doing [his] job as a Councillor” to “represent the residents of North Jesmond”. He goes on to say he has had “numerous people thank [him], in the warmest terms, for the work [he] is doing on their behalf” in correcting “something which has gone badly wrong”. However, Councillor Breakey acknowledges that “on a matter such as this, where views are divided, there will also be many residents who feel [he] is not doing the right thing”.

The response was sent in mid-December, after it was announced the council would be carrying forward design work based on the Option 1 proposal for the shopping street. JesmondLocal has repeatedly asked Peter Breakey in the past month to comment on the Council’s Director of Investment and Development’s decision to progress a scheme for Acorn Road based on Illustration 1, and what his campaign’s next steps would be, but he provided no answer.

Downing explained that among the campaigners are many Acorn Road business owners angry with the outcome of the consultation, especially independent traders. She went on to say that they are concerned about the loss of parking spaces, as she said they rely on customers “who zip in and out” of the area to pick up their shopping along the street. Downing emphasised that she, alongside other campaigners, wish to preserve Acorn Road as a place for people to visit.

The campaign led by Cllr Breakey is not only concerned for business owners, but also residents in the surrounding area, Downing believes. She said that if parking spaces are lost along Acorn Road, cars will be forced to park in surrounding residential streets. According to Downing, due to the surrounding roads being small Victorian streets, the extra parked cards will make surrounding residential roads that much more congested.

Downing queried the council suggestion that Option 1 will improve the safety of the road by making it one-way, saying that it could in fact make the road less safe for pedestrians and cyclists as campaigners are concerned it will become a “rat run”. She went on to explain her belief that the current two-way layout of Acorn Road is extremely safe, due to drivers having to maintain low speed for oncoming traffic.

A Freedom of Information Request made by Teddy Smith to the council shows that despite the one-way system being suggested in order to improve the safety of the road, no risk assessment has been undertaken to review the possible safety impact of a one-way car system with a two-way cycle route. Smith explained that the retail health check “suggests that the current system is relatively safe as it does not have fast moving traffic and any potential risks come from cars manoeuvring”, and despite the collision report not being unique to the Acorn Road area, it only listed four accidents in the last four years, further suggesting that the current layout is quite safe.

Teddy Smith and Beryl Downing both agreed that despite believing Option 1 is not the right decision for Acorn Road, something still needs to be done to the stretch. Smith said “the paths are a mess, cyclists need to be better accommodated, pedestrians need safer crossing places and the open areas need to be better managed” whilst Downing added that the signage along the stretch needs to be improved.