Bedlington Active Travel Corridor - Tree Removal Consultation

Background and Scheme Aims   

NCC successfully bid for £9 million funding via the central government ‘Levelling Up Fund’ to implement measures that would form a walking and cycling link throughout Bedlington. The scheme also includes a £1 million local contribution. The Levelling Up funding has been made available to support local authorities to drive productivity through investments in public and sustainable transport infrastructure. 

The funding recieved can only be spent on the Active Travel scheme, as set out in the application.

The scheme will improve the provision for Active Travel in Bedlington, providing high quality walking and cycling facilities seeking to tackle social inequality, enable development opportunities, facilitate modal shift and improve road safety. Linking into future opportunities for funding by working with neighbouring authorities to further develop the route.  

The route spans from the western end of Bedlington to the east with spurs created to enable access to key destinations including residential estates, schools and employment. The scheme predominantly comprises of segregated footway and two-way cycle track provision throughout Bedlington, with the addition of ‘Quiet Streets’ in various locations. Various crossings will be introduced across the scheme to ensure continuity and safe transitions.  

Duty to Consult 

During development of the scheme, the project team go through many stages of route design. In these stages potential impact on features on the bounds of the route are considered and where appropriate or possible, mitigating engineering or management solutions are put in place. 

Unfortunately, the project team have determined that there is no alternative solution in delivering the project than to remove 4 trees. 

As such a statutory consultation ‘Duty to Consult’ will take place from Wednesday 9 October for 28 days, until 23:59 on Wednesday 5 November. 

This consultation covers the following four street trees, the tree reference numbers are T8, T9, T19 and T23 and they are summarised below:

• T8, Sycamore, located east of Glassey Terrace along the B1331 

• T9, Sycamore, located east of Glassey Terrace along the B1331

• T19, Hawthorn, located on the approach to the Saint Eligius Way roundabout 

• T23, Silver Birch, located on Station Road 

Please click here for the Scheme Plan to open in another window.

To ensure compliance with the ‘Duty to Consult’ guidance Northumberland County Council will ensure:

1. A notice is placed on the County Council website/or physical copies are made available at its offices, 

2. The consultation runs for at least 28 days following the placing of the last notice (be it online or physically), and 

3. A response is published no later than 28 days following closing of the consultation.