Gateshead Quays is the historic heart of Gateshead. Gateshead Quays was a prosperous settlement in the Roman Times, and during the Industrial Revolution and Victorian Era it became one of the focal points for industries in the North East due to its easily accessible port. The area fell into decay as those old age industries were less used and they fell into decay and so the area was abandoned. Today however, Gateshead Quays is being converted into a truly unique arts and cultural space, unparalleled to anything else in Europe.
What have been the positive and negative effects of urban growth?
The positive effects of urban growth are that the city is now bigger and quite rich and able to expand places like the Eldon shopping centres. The Gateshead quays used to be unused and Gateshead Council and partners have decided to deliver a cutting edge, world-class arts, leisure and residential destination for residents and tourists alike. More than £250 million has been injected into the re-generation and 100's of new jobs have been created. Thus more jobs are found here and the city grows as more and more people flock to the city in search of work. However the problem with an urbanised city is that it is extremely big and may have a lot of traffic in the city centre and so more pollution such as noise, sound and air.
A lack of housing choice – increasing numbers of small households have increased the demand for housing, despite an overall fall in population, but Newcastle fails to offer adequate choice of housing type, tenure and cost. Housing choice is known to be a key influence on patterns of migration from the City. Surplus school places - those people moving out of the City tend to be young, economically active and with children. The loss of school-age children causes a surplus of places in the City's schools, which is predicted to grow from 3,600 (1998) to 9,340 by 2020. Decline in manufacturing employment - there is a long-established trend for the City's manufacturing jobs in shipbuilding, armaments and heavy engineering to be replaced by jobs in the service sector that now dominates the local economy.
What solutions have been put in place to ease the problem?
Newcastle has a lot of transport route connected to the city centre making travelling from rail or bus stations to the city centre very easy. There is also some restricted access road and there are a lot of car parks around the city centre. The one-way roads also direct the traffic around the city centre making the roads wider for more cars to travel in one direction thus moving the traffic away from the city centre. Also the free Sunday parking may help to lower congestion, as people are willing to park their cars if they don’t have to pay. The City Council also plans to raise the levels of education by improving resources and opportunities. They also want to create more jobs for the young people by identifying the key clusters of commercial and industrial activity and promote the city as a good place to place the company. In this way, there are more jobs for the young people. The council also wants to create a healthy, clean and attractive environment by reducing pollution and traffic as well as increasing open spaces and reduce energy consumption.
Some cities such as London have placed a congestion zone around the central business district and placed a charge for cars to enter the city centre. This reduces the amount of cars in the city cutting down traffic and pollution, as few people are willing to pay the charge. Other cities such as Oxford have a pedestrianised city centre meaning that only pedestrians can enter the city centre and this also reduces pollution and overcrowding. Cambridge has introduced a Park and Ride scheme to try to get car owners to park their cars outside the city centre and take the buses instead. People are willing to take the bus because it is an effective system and has buses daily and also there are routes, which are bus only or have a bus lane meaning that travelling by bus may be a lot faster than a car.
Have they worked?
The solutions have worked in reducing the traffic and congestion levels in the Newcastle City Centre. The traffic and pollution levels are decreasing although the council plans to make further plans to decrease the pollution and other problems however the policies up and running are making a difference to Newcastle
