Newport High Street looks set to be closed for up to 7 months from the start of 2024 as part of a £3million scheme to ‘enhance’ the Town Centre.
As previously reported by Island Echo, a large section of the High Street between St James’ Square and Holyrood Street is being transformed with 22 vital parking spaces being removed to allow for the widening of the pavement. More space will be available for pedestrians and the appearance of the area will be enhanced with new paving, planting and seating.
It is part of Councillor Julie Jones-Evans’ claimed ‘step towards a better world’, in which more people are walking, cycling and enjoying fresher air, with more space to ‘be with each other, shop and dwell’ and ‘get back their lives’.
The Newport High Street Heritage Action Zone improvement scheme has been met with mixed reactions though. The removal of on-street parking recently prompted 32 representations in favour, but 26 against. Many say that widening the pavement simply won’t bring people to an empty High Street.
It is understood that alongside the widening of the footpath, a Sustainable Drainage System will be installed in conjunction with Southern Water. It is this element of the overall scheme that extends the project well into the Summer months.
The work is set to begin in January 2024 and continue right through to the end of July – if all runs to timetable. However, despite saying the public are being kept fully informed, this information has not been made public – until now.
The closure of the main thoroughfare will no doubt have a significant impact on Newport, its businesses and motorists travelling in and around the county town.
When asked why the works are set to take 7 months, the Isle of Wight Council was unable to comment as an agreement has not yet been signed with Southern Water.
A spokesperson for the local authority has said:
“These works are specifically being scheduled to avoid the lead up to a busy Christmas season and throughout the works, disruption will be kept to absolute minimum, with local traders and the general public being kept fully informed.
“When conducting local surveys, much of the feedback has been the volume and dominance of traffic in Newport town centre, making it a less attractive place – changing this dominance of the car is a priority for local stakeholders, with people reclaiming public places they can enjoy. #
“Beyond this, we are unable to disclose full details of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) inclusion until an agreement has been signed with Southern Water. We will update via a further press statement when this is concluded.”
The biggest improvement would be 3 hours free parking and it wouldn’t cost anything to do that
Why widen footpaths?! Give us an extra lane so we can drive through quicker. Then is oppression!
ban the cycles
I couldn’t agree more, even 1 hour free would make a big difference.
What planet is this woman living on? This is going to put so many struggling shops out of business and ruin livelihoods.
I would have thought the council have much better things to spend their money on than this.
I truely can’t see that wider pavements and less parking is going to be a benefit.
Please don’t say THEIR MONEY its taxpayers money they are wasting
OUR money!! The paths are fine. I’ve literally never had a problem with crowds on them in Newport!!
Thing is it isn’t there money they are spending it’s ours. Even the Tory car in the plans lol
Yeah, let’s subsidise drivers even more! Screw the pedestrians! (Of course under next article on pedestrian deaths in Newport we will all talk about genuine sorrow #thoughtsAndPrayers)
Stop being a hippy and buy a car Susan you absolute melt!
Ok Susan how is a person from Havenstreet supposed to get to Newport as the bus doesn’t serve Havenstreet
What is subsidizing drivers? They contribute far more to the public coffers than any cyclist or public transport user. Newport would have had a lot more traffic from horse and coaches in Victorian times than will be allowed under these ludicrous plans being forced on people under the blanket excuse of net zero and ‘climate change’
Don’t forget the new mental health centre in the old HMV building because once that opens no one will want to go shopping up the top of town anymore.
So lets keep the cars away, keep the visitors out, keep the money out and watch the town centre die of neglect. This is their dimwit policy – and hey! It seems to be working.
Councillor jones-evans must live in cuckoo land if she believes more people will shop in Newport with less parking am I right in saying she drives BMW and lives very close to newport Town centre
Exactly, this is why Newport center should be demolished and turned into a retail park. If I can’t drive door to door I’m not going in, who cares about anyone else?
Except all studies show places with more foot traffic are better for local shops and restaurants?
How is Cowes pedestrianised zone? Dead yet?
No but its full of yachtie shops that pop up and then prompty close
Could Shanklin have a few million to spend after the waste of money at Ryde and now Newport or is another town due next?
And yet ANOTHER brainwave idea to disrupt the island smack bang in the middle of the summer period.
If it’s not disrupting the beach front at Ryde or the road closures it’s always something else!
No Post Office.
Huge empty shops.
The biggest improvement would actually be to have shops!!!!! (Not just charity/betting/ shops)
Widening pavements and losing parking spaces will only lead to less activity on the high street ….
If you are only popping in and out of a couple of shops it makes sense to park close by especially if on lunch break etc .
I’m not a car owner but removing car parking spaces from town for shoppers to pick up prescriptions, grab a bit of shopping on a busy day etc would take trade from the area. Why do we need wider pavements there anyway? They are relatively roomy compared to the area near Scarrats. Closing that area of town for 7 months plus the inevitable delays will impact businesses.
What a disaster for Newport shops! Newport will be a town center to keep clear of.
> to keep clear off
For cars, yeah, that’s the point. Cities for people, not dangerous vehicles.
After all, it is city centre; where all kinds of people live. It’s not a highway for cars, it’s a liveable space for people.
One of the most intuitive questions they teach you at architecture school is to ask: would you let your kid alone on that street? Or let your kid cycle to school on those streets?
That’s ^ the aim for city centres.
For dangerous vehicles we have other roads where people do not live.
Question ,do you drive ,? Use taxis ? Get lifts?……
Or do you walk everywhere or cycle ??????
Do you use buses?????
We need transport…..
And do you live in a house/flat????
The ceiling could fall down! Very dangerous ceilings …..
If they fall down !!!!!
It is already somewhere to avoid
It still is!
All the gear and no idea…!! Julie lives in Julie’s world. I’d save 3 million by just giving the area a deep clean, new planters & trees free parking for 90 minutes. And lowering council taxes by getting rid of the useless ones at the top. That’s all of them then.
These fad schemes remind me of the saying, “You can’t polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter.”
This isn’t an isolated case; so many Councils up and down the Country are spending money to improve the ‘shopping experience’, yet the horse has already bolted.
Retail will never recover back to how it was pre-internet. Customer’s buying habits have changed. However, What attracts customers are these out-of-town retail parks—free parking, accessible for all, and significant brands all in one place.
Let’s try and properly kill off business in the high street shall we!!
You cant resuscitate something that’s dead.
There is nothing in Newport now that would attract visitors or Islanders.
What a joke!
Just hope a change of local government will drop this stupid waste of OUR money!
Sorry to disappoint you , but whoever gets in is trained in wasting our money….
Goes hand in hand with the stupid grins!!!!!!
It’s meant to be an alliance and look where that has got us ??????
With so many empty shops in Newport already this will surely have a negative impact on the shops that are left, and keep people away from town during the works, which may result in more people using online alternatives.
Sheer lunacy, there are no major shops, parking is already restrictive and clearly going to get worse and those of us with mobility issues want and need to park close to the shop we wish to visit.
This mad capped scheme will be the death of Newport.
One thing the Americans get right, shopping mall’s, all brands under one huge roof with masses of free parking.
Rock on Amerzon.
I thought the council was in the red.
Trust me, it will never re open.
This sort of tomfoolery killed off several stores in Wolverhampton during similar works.
Hold on a minute councillor evans ill get my bicycle out and ride over from shanklin and see how much easier it will be to shop in the empty shops. Ill only be two hours if you don’t mind waiting as peddle power will take a while to get to you.
The works will take seven months (double that if Southern water is involved) – so when will Tesco be able to start their works and bring a very necessary retail unit to the town?
“It is part of Councillor Julie Jones-Evans’ claimed ‘step towards a better world’, in which more people are walking, cycling and enjoying fresher air,”
Widening the pavements does nothing to promote the above so it goes down as a waste of money. Same amount of cars, less space for cyclists, and fresh air, my goodness.
What? It totally does.
With amount of people in Newport it’s just unsafe to walk and so many people just avoid the area altogether: like me, I’m not taking my 2 daughters there walking on those narrow streets, it’s not a chill and relaxed experience at all. I’d much rather go to Cowes instead.
So it is totally promoting walking in Newport if pavements get safer.
Nonsense. The high street has hardly any meaningful shops after years of neglect, retail failures and a greedy council/private landlords. Widening the pavements so that people can visit non-existent shops, whilst simultaneously threatening the few that remain is the very definition of lunacy. Rinse and repeat in Ryde, Shanklin, Sandown, Ventnor, even Cowes. The high street as a place is dying due to changes in retail moving online and council/landlord greed with high rents and rates. Adding an extra foot of pavement will have zero impact. And if you truly want to get people out of their “dangerous” cars (I bet you own a car), then you should direct your energies to improving public transport beyond half hourly dirty, old buses.
This would be fine if they plan to let cafes and restaurants have pavement tables but we all know that the bloody council will want to charge the cafes to use the pavements for a pleasurable activity like dining outside. They are idiots.
Newport is now just a dump and will always be a dump why go there most shops have shut down or replaced with charity shops i now do all my shopping on line much better and i don’t have to pay to park. it’s like most of the island towns rundown drug dumps
I am all for removing all the parking,, making pavements wider and restricting the road to light traffic. But have to do something so people can park nearby and the large lorries have a route around it. Can not ‘hope’ the supermarkets will allow their car parks be used.
This is the precursor to the complete closure of the lower high street, for whatever reason?
All through traffic will have go down to the foot of Hunny Hill and turn right.
This means all the HGVs that have to use this route, all the tractor trailer combinations and everyone else.
The original thinking was to then make the road in front of the petrol station 1 way…with a lighted crossing at the end.
What could possibly go wrong!!!
All this and for what? Look at the nonsense that went on for the covid debacle.Talk about Pig’s ears.
This lot would be unemployable on the bigger island.
So glad I didn’t invest in a business in Newport.
IOW Council seems determined to wreck the Island economy, whether it’s refusing planning permission for decaying buildings or mad schemes like this.
You couldn’t make it up.
So sad, when it all could be so different.
Why do we need wider pavements? They’re wide enough for mobility scooters and tbh they’re hardly busy with pedestrians.We need some decent shops.
Councillor Julie Jones-Evans: “more space to ‘be with each other, shop and dwell’ and ‘get back their lives.”
How can I get my life back? I know, I’ll go to Newport!
Everyone Has failed to mention where the detoured traffic will be going from Carisbrooke road way to Coppins bridge
Left at the lights outside the closed Dotty Ps, down to Halfords where it needs to turn right. Over the bump, under the hump, right turn in front of Curry’s (with everyone else) and onto the dual snailway.
That won’t cause any problems will it!!! Ha ha. Can you imagine what chaos will ensue? Still at least everyone will enjoy the views of the uncut grass and the dumped McDonald’s cartons.
Just like the magic roundabout, really well thought out, and of course all done for our collective benefit?
More like Benny Hill.
Down the narrow back streets, that were never meant for high volumes of traffic. That’s the problem with Newport, there’s no easy way through or round it. This will just make it worse than ever.
Nobody goes to Newport to sit on the high street what the hell are they thinking.
Its a dirty rundown dump.
Like all the towns on the Island with the exception of Cowes high street.
They are just not living in the real world; what an unintelligent not fit to be in any position to make such changes.
The Council is a laughing stock.
The council usher in the complete death of Newport town centre – built up over hundreds of years by enterprising businesses and hard working people, wrecked on the altar of climate change and net zero by public sector bureaucrats
I have not heard anything quite as ludicrous since the last statement from our beloved corrupt council. At the rate shops are closing, giving a wider pavement in a town centre with no shops, will be wonderful for the nobody that will be there, not shopping! Sadly we all also know that new plantings, probably won’t last long, as the council will claim they cannot afford the upkeep. Unless they can get sponsored by one of the shops, that have closed? So at least the no people, that are in the town visiting the no shops, partly because of the TOURISM TAX , that the council ask for, because they closed the tourism office, and built a website that has about the same amount of visits, as the closed public toilets etc
They should make use of both the squares and have restaurants and bars with plenty of outside seating and entertainment Good Buskers anything theirs plenty of quality talent out there, you only need to go to Bournemouth or Brighton even Dublin all these places are buzzing and they have all got it right. Our Council will just waste the money on wider pavements will make no difference if there is nothing to go there for.
I used to live in Bournemouth. They have pedestrianised the town centre and it’s now a lovely, open, safe area with wide pavements, gardens, outside dining and buskers. Oh, but it’s also surrounded by a choice of large, accessible car parks so people can actually visit and spend money in the shops and restaurants. I love the IOW and Newport should be the jewel in the crown. It’s so sad to see what such blatant stupidity has done. Keep the cars out, keep the visitors out, keep the money out. Great policy you dimwits!
Suggest the council gets its budget back in the black before wasting money on schemes like this.
Councillor Julie Jones-Evans’ claimed ‘step towards a better world’,
Truly hopeless and delusional .. where do they find these fools .. who signs off these waste of time and money ideas… another brain phart plan from the house of stupidity .
What a load of …. ….
Another fantastic idea from this stupid I O W C,They have fd up the rest of the island, along with the ever irritating W F ,now it’s Newports turn.
I O W C- a lesson in how to destroy business on the island,oh yeh,and make people late for work.
New pavement tax coming to Newport
Yet another moronic idea from a moron wannabe politician the air is fine it’s the cleanest it’s been nation wide in 60 years and how dose having to lug shopping from the high street to the other side of town by hand equate to people getting their lives back the internet is desimating high street shopping as more shops close down if people cannot drive to and park on the high street they won’t bother using the high street period it will become a bankrupt ghost town and the fact that cyclists will be allowed to ride round the high street not only still puts padestrians in danger of being hit by idiot tree hugging cyclists but it is discrimination to allow cyclists but not cars and motorcycles
Won’t happen in Nodehill where the pavement is narrow. We all know why. Julie. Not in my street Evans
Another Floating Bridge fiasco is on the cards, more idiots think they know best.
Lets hope island roads aren’t involved
Wider paths to walk to zero shops!! Lol.
The Circus is moving out next week. But many of the clowns at council remain, wasting money.
There is nothing that can be done to Newport High Street that will offer any sort of improvement. The road is already a one way single lane, and will remain so. A complete new infrastructure to enable traffic to avoid the town centre is what is needed, and that is never going to happen.
Oh come on Julie. How can this be an improvement ? It will all be vandalised and why would anyone want to come to Newport with extortionate parking charges and no shops. This is a complete waste of money and I thought as an Island person who grew up just up the road from me would know better!
It would make more sense to use the money to reduce the shop taxes and rents and see if you can actually get the empty shops filled back up before spending millions on an empty high street.
We don’t need more charity shops or coffee shops.
As for the parking in the town, I can’t walk to far because of my health and I rely on the high St spaces to visit shops like boots or the card shop opposite. If you allow 1 or 2 hours free it will help the town with footfall if you take it away you push more people out of town.
You need to go to Llandudno they have a thriving town , every shop you can think of along with individual retailers. They have a bus service that runs through it. 90 minutes free parking and it’s really busy. They have got it right. Doing this to Newport will kill it even more ,they need to start lowering business rates. And not to get rid of the street parking. I just hope this doesn’t happen.
Looks like we are going to get the most pedestrian friendly, pretty looking ghost town ever imagined? Our council is not fit for purpose and this crazy scheme will finish off Newport!
Can you imagine what all the pedestrian areas will be taken over by , just have a look round by the library.
Why doesn’t the brain dead woman have a meeting with shop owners and actual people who live in Newport instead of saying this absolute dribble
It’s about time people who live on the island stand up to this council soon the whole of the wight will be a no go area for tourism at all.. People will end up loosing their businesses and people their jobs
There’s a nice pedestrian area by the cathedral. Wouldn’t it be great to have a market, not just 3 stalls. Most people remember towns by the market, not the high Street, which even if the shops hadn’t left, would be replicas of every town in the country. This isn’t a great idea, sure someone somewhere has a better idea for spending money that’s been saved from well needed services.