Latest news with #Go North East

BBC News

Newcastle Great Park 'fractured' after Q3 bus cut, residents say

A controversial bus service cut that "fractured" a community should be put under review, residents have chiefs have been urged to look again at the changes that removed a popular service from Great Park, in September, much of the estate has no longer been served by Go North East's Q3 bus in a move that sparked hundreds of complaints about problems accessing local services in nearby councillor Juna Sathian said the previous Q3 route was "too expensive to run with falling passenger numbers" and that the city council wanted to find "best value" by providing a service that could become self-sustaining rather than reliant on public funding. A petition signed by more than 3,600 people was presented to Newcastle City Council on Wednesday, where Great Park resident Sharon Pitkethly said stopping the service was "not just inconvenient" but "damaging and discriminatory"."There was no meaningful consultation. Residents were excluded. With no commitment to future provision, we now face isolation," Ms Pitkethly told the Local Democracy Reporting Service."This has increased traffic, harmed the environment and fractured our community. "We demand immediate action through a fair, inclusive and transparent review." New services The estate's bus services are funded through section 106 funding payments made by its developers and commissioned by the estate's transport advisory board, made up of representatives of the Newcastle Great Park Consortium, the city council and bus operator year a new Stagecoach 49 service was set up, though residents complained it was less frequent than the said: "Ideally we would have consulted more widely with residents and that is something we are committed to improving in future."Since the new services were introduced, several parts of Great Park now have a better bus connection with more frequent services, new links to Kingston Park and similar journey times into the city."She also said the council was "actively exploring ways" to improve bus services in Great Park. Follow BBC Newcastle on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.