£3million plans that could shift the priority from vehicles to pedestrians in key areas of Newport will go before senior councillors next week, but if the plans are approved it will mean a loss of vital High Street parking.
‘People First Zone’ proposals have been drawn up to significantly improve the accessibility and appearance of the High Street and St James’ Square, with wider pavements and clear unobstructed walking routes.
The plans were developed by a community design panel, made up of design professionals, local residents, businesses and user groups, as part of the Newport High Street Heritage Action Zone programme to regenerate the High Street. Just 182 responses were received during a 6-week consultation period, with 32% against the idea.
It is hoped that the redevelopment will create a vibrant town centre where residents can move around freely and easily, with room to stop and browse in shop windows or socialise in a more people-friendly space. There are also hopes that it will help stimulate further private investment from building owners and local businesses, further enhancing the street scene.
The key proposals include:
- Removal of 22 parking spaces between St James’ Street and Holyrood Street
- Wider pavements on both sides of the High Street
- Narrowing the road to encourage drivers to slow down
- Extending St James’ Square to provide new public space around the Victoria Memorial
- New areas of planting, more seating and cycle racks installed in clusters to minimise clutter
- 3 new dedicated parking days for disabled people on the High Street and the extension of the High Street loading bay
What’s unclear is whether the ‘red carpet’ will be ripped up in St James’ Square, as it is already a tight fit for buses heading towards the bus station.
Councillor Julie Jones-Evans, the Cabinet member for regeneration and business development, said:
“This is part of a series of actions which aim to bring out the town’s rich heritage while looking to the future needs of a changing town centre, which needs to become a place full of diverse activities where people want to spend time. We want to create a public realm to be proud of.
“Our historic streets and squares are peppered with fantastic historic buildings and the surroundings should provide a suitable setting for them, while the health and environmental benefits of greening our town centre can’t be ignored.”
Councillor Phil Jordan, Cabinet member for transport and infrastructure, added:
“As traffic has grown over the years, cars and other vehicles have gradually dominated the town centre’s streets.
“The environment for people walking around parts of the town could be improved and changes to the area will encourage residents and visitors to linger and spend time in the town.
“The People First Zone seeks to create an environment in the town centre that puts the needs of people first.”
The report to be considered by Cabinet next Thursday (14th July) also seeks support for the council to work towards reducing the volume and size of vehicles using the High Street by developing alternative routes around the town centre.
Without the parking there will be NO PEOPLE!
No Parking , No People , No customers- more shops close.
Do the planners not get it – no supermarket would ever open with inadequate parking – shops need car spaces nearby.
It will just devastate a High Street that already has a third world image – spend the money on cleaning things up and reducing rates for start up retailers !!
THINK AGAIN.
Don’t waste our money on costly ” CONSULTANTS “.
@spot on
What supermarket open on high streets? Anywhere, not just the Isle of Wight?
This is all about the worlds Governments curtailing private car ownership.
They have tried and failed with ‘global warming, climate change’ project fear to convince the pleb masses to ‘give up’ cars, so now they are pricing us off the road, and making it so much more intolerable to park and drive, in an effort that people say ‘Car ownership is not worth the fuss and cost anymore’
YET this will then give free roads and enough parking for all the ‘top people’ to travel and park as they once did. SEE what is really happening the rich get richer and the poor give up the small pleasures they once had, yet no end to imm’s.
Totally true
They did the same with smoking. First project fear, health warnings then graffic pictures on cigarette packets.
Then ban smoking in public places then in workplaces and pubs.
Then raise prices to extortionate levels
See the pattern now repeated with cars always’done’ in the guises of our safety and health to keep outcry to a whisper level but convincing the gullible it’s for their children’s future
I thought all research shows pedestrian zones boost sales. With more foot traffic people have time to stroll around calmly, watch everything for longer.
Despite, you don’t need to park right next to the shop’s door. This way you will see even more shops and their offers as you walk from parking to the shop!
We don’t want your facts Kidders! This island is special, we need cars here. /s
I agree. The only way to save Newport is pedestrianisation thereby keeping vehicles and people completely separate. The times of having parking right outside shops has passed and harks back to the last century. People want to be able to enjoy the shops and eateries without having to constantly dodge traffic or breath in the fumes. The council needs to provide parking away from pedestrian areas but incorporate access for the disabled.
However, the only way the council will be able to keep cars out of central Newport is to build a bypass, but that is never going to happen, so the town centre will continue to be just a road leading from one side of Newport to the other with a few run down shops along the way.
What shops .??????
This is an excellent idea. All the places this has been done on the mainland it has made the shopping centres that much nicer.
Please tell us where the “development of alternative routes around the town centre “are likely to be.
Newport is already on it’s last legs !!!!!!
This will be the final nail in the coffin ⚰…..
Don’t waste 3 million quid of are money, wasted enough on the non floating piece of C—…
How about putting it back into the services you have cut ????
Social care etc or sorting affordable housing for islanders ? ….
Perhaps Council could also remove all parking at there offices and use public transport.
Utter idiots. Discourage cars and you end up discouraging shoppers. What do these fools think will happen, that everyone will want to come to Newport by bus? This will be the final nail in the coffin of Newport if these ridiculous plans are approved, not that Newport isn’t dead already of course. 182 responses to a consultation – says it all.
Pro tip: you don’t have to park 1m away from a shop’s door to visit that shop. You can park outside the centre and have a… checks notes how big Newport is…5 minute stroll as well. They don’t even check passports and allow people to just walk in!
What Kindders, you expect people to walk? Radical people like you are ruining my planet. /s
What do you suggest the disabled do? fight over the 3 parking bays!
Newport is defiantly not a dead town.
So I’m counting Newport as: – Saint James’s Street from The Co-operative Funeralcare and the old Central to the old WW Woodford & Sons shop and the old pub at 118 – Holyrood Street from The Medina Railway Tavern and Hurst to the High Street (Including Watchbell Lane) – Town Lane – High Street from Laundrette and Snug (Technically Carisbrooke Road) to Saint Thomas Chambers and The Sign Company – Pyle Street from Ability Dogs 4 Young People and hair by Chelsea to the High Street – South Street from Saint James’s Street to Event and Isle of Wight Shopmobility – Gray’s Walk – Saint James Square – Saint Thomas
Newport isn’t dead. 4 months ago I went out and counted counted 313 open “shops” and 41 closed.
88% of Newport shops are in use.
Yes, and the vast majority of those shops are coffee shops and charity shops. Big deal. There is nothing of interest in Newport
It would be bet to use the £3m on areas thet people visit not a ghost town
Waste of money. Either fully pedestrianize or don’t make changes.
The artist doing these illustrations obviously has no concept of road safety and highway code.
Also how much are his / her costs????
Who paid for the pretty pictures????
and not a single tree its just full of concrete bricks and very thin island roads tarmac
don’t you mean Island Rogues 🙂
What nothing to spray ????
I rather doubt the accuracy of these illustrations.
Loss of High Street parking? There’s no reason left to go to Newport. There are real shops left, just charity and coffee shops. Who cares about parking now? Get some new/different shops open and there might be something to moan about, otherwise, who cares?
“The People First Zone seeks to create an environment in the town centre that puts the needs of people first.”
Seriously just read that babble speak again by these Councillors as quoted.
Er, excuse me, the current and previous Councils have turned the Newport centre into a complete ghost town and driven people away with short sighted on-street parking charges which in turn destroy established businesses which give no reason for people to go anywhere near Newport. The artistic impressions are pie in the sky and talk of spending £3 million in any such attempts, just show how out of touch these people really are.
But where will I store my car!
So more online shopping for me, why are the Council so far behind the times. Like we say to kid’s – get out more, reduce screen time, stop playing games. Yet they are on screens most of day in school, mobile phones, gaming is now on curriculum and at college – working Adults on screens to. Walking around town to social and shop will never return,spend money on something that makes a difference.
Just try free parking might ? get more on high Street but think not. If Poundland and BnM moved then the end altogether.
A vibrant shopping area needs shops! So stop allowing out of town shopping complex’s. If there are no shops I don’t come into Newport – nothing to do with pedestrianisation. I can’t ‘linger and spend time’ if there is nothing to see! The most dangerous thing about negotiating around the town on foot is the b—-y bus lane!
Who cares, place is already dead, no reason to go there anymore.
Time will tell, but if people can’t park for a reasonable amount of money then they won’t go to Newport. Maybe instead of a drive-in Costa that is proposed they could build a Park & Ride so that people can park and then get into Newport. Pretty pictures don’t tell the story of real time problems!!
When there is a realistic way of getting past Newport for all vehicles then this sort of frippary can be looked at. Until then, where will all the tractors with trailers full of sh1t3 go, where will all the over size vehicles like those transporting mobile homes go?
Anyone that walked through Newport during the lockdown to see all the barriers and nice wide open spaces full of….nothing…will already have a vision of what is proposed. £2 an hour to park?
We parked centre of Lyndhurst for £1 an hour the other weekend and the toilets were clean tidy and free. The cafes were all doing business too.
Deal with the shops, get some businesses in.
What bunch of cretins came up with this idea, Newport high street is struggling so what do you do, take away 22 parking spaces which if you allowed 2 hour parking would be 44 cars per working day of shoppers, how do people who are not privileged to live on a bus route do their shopping.
This lunacy will just drive shoppers to the out of town supermarkets.
This! Newport will not survive this change. There will be 44 less shoppers a day! /s
the only reason ryde high street continues to see relatively decent footfall is because the of the coop car park next to it, the car park spaces in john street, the ability to park in the upper high street and further down, parking in union street.
without those parking facilities – the high street in ryde would have died a long time ago
Really… Look at Ryde, The pedestrianised High St… cars still drive up it at night !! Yet it is sign posted NO VEHICULAR TRAFFIC… e scooters ridded by young teens, cyclists doing wheelies.. skate boards. ridiculous, and nobody cares, plus that idiot on a little monkey bike with not proper exhaust deafening people as he flies by…. H0ow about fixing this one first before building another… Why waste any money on Newport… it is a dump !! Be better to put the money towards building a tunnel to mainland !!
yes – it is time that annoying p rick on his stupid little bike has it taken off him or quietened down
The planner for this must be someone with pen still on the back of their hands.
Get real, Newport is dead, bury it.
Vibrant town centre – this is hilarious!
What shops ? If you don’t want your nails done ,haircut , coffee or a tattoo what is left in Newport ? Get a grip planners !!!
We need a proper shopping centre, under cover with a multi storey, not 3m spent on wider pavements, the prehistoric high st we have isn’t even quaint just dated like all the high streets on the island