The Newport High Street Heritage Action Zone project, which aims to improve the pedestrian environment making the High Street a more pleasant place to shop and spend time, enters a new phase with Isle of Wight Council’s consultation on the related traffic changes.
These new traffic regulations form part of a People First Zone project and this includes more usable pavement space to make walking around the town easier, will also feature new planting, seating and cycle parking. A public consultation last year has led to design changes in response to the feedback, including:
- Introduction of more planting, in larger blocks, to give the town centre a greener feel.
- Improvements to parking for disabled people, with parking on both sides of the road and one extra-long parking bay to allow rear ramps to be used more easily.
- Retention of some general parking, to provide extra provision for disabled people who do not need dedicated bays and short-term parking for other others.
The High Street Heritage Action Zone (funded by Historic England, Newport and Carisbrooke Community Council and Isle of Wight Council) is working in partnership with Southern Water to introduce new Sustainable Drainage Systems to the street. This will reduce combined sewer overflows into the Medina Estuary.
The consultation on the Traffic Regulation Orders has a closing date of 12th May and de tails of the proposed orders including how to submit your feedback are available via the council’s website.
Comments of support and objections can only be legally considered if full contact details are provided whether by letter, email or by online survey.
“High Street a more pleasant place to shop and spend time”
Empty shops: Brighthouse, Poundstretcher, Island Beds (closing), Topshop, shops next to Barclays, Mountain Warehouse (old shop) etc etc.
To make Newport a “more pleasant place to shop” the empty shops need to be not empty.
Maybe a Post Office too?
Safer to browse the charity shops…..
But don’t forget the tax payers are paying for this to help the disabled so we need all the charity shops so the tax payers can buy new old clothes as we can’t aford new as we the cash cows are being bled dry. At least the disabled will be ok though
The first thing they need to do in Newport is lower parking charges, reduce rates for small businesses. Then there may actually be some shops to go to and some people to shop in them. Unfortunately our local councillors don’t seem to understand that planters and pedestrian zones are going to do nothing to improve our flailing town.
Central Government sets business rates in most cases, not local councils. In certain situations, local authorities can offer business rates relief, but again central government regulations apply and such relief is almost always temporary and usually related to a significant event. I believe this happened when there were complete road closures in Sandown due to Southern Water activities.
Yes, indeed, though they could do what Margate did and use the funding they receive to give small business a relief – rather than spending on unnecessary vanity projects, such as a load of banners down the high street, advertising all the things you can do (or not) in Newport. I’m also not 100% sure but believe Ventnor Town council did a similar thing for small businesses using funding from central gov.
What is wrong with our council? Ok, so there is not enough space here to answer that one! They are missing the point though. Its not a pleasant environment that will bring back shoppers, its decent shops that are needed. The council need to attract big name stores back to Newport, not pedestrians! People need a reason to come to a town, and right now with the poor range of shops on offer, there is none!
I mean… you need both, a shop AND a pleasant environment.
If environment is unpleasant, why not order online from competitors and go spend time in a more pleasant place?
There’s Boots in Newport to which I never feel like going because whatever, it’s not a pleasant trip, I can just buy it online.
But my last clothes I bought at Wight Stuff in Cowes – because it was an add-on to my pleasant trip: pedestrian area, cocktail bar, sea.
Consultation ! So the decision has already been made but the Council need to appear to be transparent.
I helped a relative do the consultation on the recent Ventnor parking proposals. The council withdrew one and amended another after people made their comments. So please don’t put people off taking part in the consultation.
Newport and heritage should never be used in the same sentence, the town is a product of so many years of neglect and half hearted ideas that lack any form of strategic thinking, only ever short term plans from one local election to another. Attempting as the council says to make the town a more pleasant place to shop, what shops, what footfall, people go to out of town venues because its just as cheap and far more convienent.
So town centre will only be for Blue Badge holders and cyclists?. There must be 40plus closed shops – reason Business rates and desperate landlords. Newport will never be a thriving town centre because the Council have ruined it,high parking charges and giving permission for out of town superstores,St George’s park soon. Why pay £3 /£5 parking,to then have to walk a distance and carry back etc when Asda, Matalan, Home bargains, Lidl,B&Q etc have all I need.Even charity shops moving out. Friends of the animals, Hospice, Store room etc.
It’s a dump to look at and as for encouraging people there it needs dramatic change .
i know people actually pay to even park ,the place along with other towns are not worth going to .
Im sorry this island has got to this stage ,run down, eyesores, terrible roads , congestion, parking all over pavements and grass verges.
need I go on, oh I will ,
and a council who just want to profit and take huge handouts from government and show absolutely nothing to improve this once thriving island
Hi had a relative near.90 yrs old .travel by coach to sandown for 5 days first look round sandown. Mmm not impressed .Next day visit to Newport for the.day !!!!!! Unbelievable .not impressed …so many closed shops ..that a whole coach full of people ..on holiday .embarrassing …I’m encouraging family to come here .no more .cost her.lot of money plus very long journey 7 hrs ..!!!!!!
I feel embarrassed when I see the coaches. What must they think ?
A more pleasant place to shop um and we’re is this shopping to take place I ask when all the shops are closed down either out of business or gone online and the few that remain won’t be far behind leaving no need to go to the high street at all and given the way the Nazi government are trying to restrict our freedom of movement and Rob us of all other freedoms we have from birth what would be the point of a high street to go too if none of use peasants are allowed to go anywhere
Yeah, that Nazi goverment, not allowing pedestrians on highways too! And plenty of places where you aren’t allowed to ride a horse, what a disgrace! And there are some places where they don’t allow my truck because it’s supposedly too heavy! What a restriction of my birth rights!
I think they need to sort the road system out .u can’t get to newport for traffic jams .no shops either .
If only we were a small island. We could have plenty of buses, trains, safe cycling tracks, pedestrian zones and then leave roads free for those who truly need them.
Ehh, dreams.
The same needs doing along Great Preston Road Ryde to
stop the T’wat’s parking on pavements outside the old council houses
Some people are thick as 2 planks!
The yellow car is a disabled driver. She just doesn’t claim a badge like all the other scroungers and suffers in silence. We live near by and know the family. Stop bullying them and go back home.
It is about time our so called Council that is meant to represent the public that pay for them started living in the real world.
There is nothing left to visit Newport for unless it is for a specific reason such as, one particular shop, Bank, Solicitors, Specsavers or similar.
Shopping on the internet has not helped but is is delivered to your door, saving either a bus fare or fuel etc for the car and also the parking charges.
Yes I appreciate that some are free for the first hour but if you want to stay for 2 hours there no signs to explain how to get the free hour and then stay for another without returning to purchase the ticket, and the other day the Lugley St one would not accept card payments!
Surely they would do better to put money into the services that they keep cutting!!!!!
A few planters aren’t going to encourage shopper’s!!!
Read the comments, what we all want are shop’s to shop in !¡!!!!!!!
Lower the rentals, lower parking charges ,and hopefully people will go to Newport??????
The council has nothing to do with the rental cost of shops.
You have to pay business rates ……
So the council could lower those !!!!
What is this obsession with planting? Just like the Ryde interchange. It’s doing nothing to encourage shopping and has zero impact on road safety.
Look at the narrow pavements between McDonalds and Pyle Street both sides. Widen those properly.
Don’t worry about the narrow pavements they will be along shortly with their latest invention. Bollards straight down the middle so you can’t use them like they have done in Ventnor and Gurnard!
They could run tours of all the closed and dilapidated shops; mock ups of shops, so that people can get a sense of what working shops used to look like. There’s so much they could do to the museum that is Newport High Street.
I do love heritage pictured here – especially that red colour among the sea of white and black, I do suspect it’s an indirect attempt by designers to point out we are just the single drop of blood in the sea of good and evil.
Or perhaps that’s some random metal boxes parked there, not sure.
Either way, it’s a beautiful place – I take my whole family to sometimes sit on the kerb and watch sunset over the boulevard of parking dreams. And man, those fumes are the only perfumes I need.
Great place to hang out with your loved ones and chill.
Hardly any shops left. It’s a waste of time going into Newport !
Still not sure where traffic is going to go in this ‘new’ plan. Where will traffic from Carisbrooke go? What will happen around the bus station?
Through New Street and Chapel Street of course, but do try to keep under 30 through there.
And make it even more difficult to find parking to visit the high street. far better to build a bypass for busses and large vehicles.
This will of course be another excuse for social engineering (get you out of your cars and make you use public transport so a £4 trip to Newport with your family in your own vehicle will cost you at least £20 on the bus and of course you will then struggle to carry back in all weathers with any of the stuff you have purchased in the few shops the council didn’t kill off when they gleefully closed off the high street parking for Covid – nothing the council does is without the blessing of Whitehall bureaucrats and those bureaucrats are under orders to net zero us back to the Stone Age, so don’t expect anything to improve anytime soon
As long as I can still park my mobility scooter outside The Crispin on giro day I’m all for it