Newcastle City Council is yet to make a decision on the future of Haldane Bridge in South Jesmond, which was temporarily closed to motor traffic in August 2020.

The council announced the temporary closure to motor vehicles of five bridges around the city to test the premise of low-traffic neighbourhoods, which included Haldane Bridge in South Jesmond. Residents have since been given the opportunity to give feedback during a consultation period on the closures, which ended on February 15^th this year.

Ed Smith from Space for Jesmond told JesmondLocal that the closure of Haldane Bridge has been “a success in several ways”, stating that it has become “a safe walking and cycling route that is regularly used”.

Smith added that Space for Jesmond hoped for “an open and honest consultation, but with a firm commitment to making real change on the ground that fully lives up to the specifications that have been set out by the government for the creation of low traffic neighbourhoods”.

Despite this, the campaign group conceded in a recent tweet there is opposition to the closure, highlighting the council were under pressure to reopen the bridge.

Resident Jennifer Wilson, told JesmondLocal she believed reopening the bridge fully would “improve traffic flow around school drop-off and pick-up times.”

The Newcastle Conservative Party recently launched a petition to halt the road and bridge closures around the city. Conservative council candidate for South Jesmond, Olly Scargill, told JesmondLocal: “I’ve spoken to a lot of residents in South Jesmond and in areas like Gosforth as well, where they’ve been affected by these bridge and road closures. We want to have them open, and of course if we find out things are dangerous, then these are things we need to be fixing as well.”

The Newcastle Conservatives also criticised the Labour council because of their reluctance to decide on the future bridges until after the local elections in May. The Chronicle reported that the council would likely make a judgment “from late May onwards”, which the Newcastle Conservatives saw as the Labour council not wanting to be held accountable for decisions until after the election.

The Chronicle also reported that the council would not be releasing the number of votes cast for or against for the bridges being permanently closed, stating: “this isn’t a referendum based on numbers for or against”.

After the consultation period ended, Councillor Arlene Ainsley announced that automated computer responses had been generating thousands of comments to stop the permanent closure of the bridges.

Considered a “malicious attempt”, an investigation led by digital forensic experts revealed that around 7,000 responses had been written by fake accounts.

Space for Jesmond’s Smith said: “nobody has lost access to any residential property”.

“The bridge is not suitable to take motor traffic in my opinion. I do not believe that a bridge designed to that standard now would ever be legally allowed to take motor traffic.”

Should the bridge be reopened, Smith made it clear that Space for Jesmond would “campaign and petition against that decision”, adding that the closure of all five bridges should not be overturned because it was “entirely in line with government policy and [Newcastle City Council’s] own policies”.