round-up: What’s new, hot and happening in NewcastleGateshead
Green glory
Newcastle has been named Britain’s greenest city by the Forum for the Future. The think tank looked at 20 UK cities exploring air quality, wildlife, waste collection, residents’ views and quality of life to determine who was top – Newcastle claimed fourth place last year. Forum for the Future’s chief executive Peter Madden said: “Cities with an industrial heritage face genuine challenges, but Newcastle’s
success shows that it is possible to overcome the legacy of the past and perform well on many measures of sustainability.” The forum’s Sustainable Cities Index 2009 applauds Newcastle’s Sustainable Community Strategy 2008-2011, which states: “Our economic growth will not have been achieved at the expense of our environment – Newcastle in 2021 will be a sustainable city with excellent air
quality, low waste levels, low carbon emissions and high recycling rates.” And developers are buying into the concept too, over 46sq m of roof space at Eldon Square Shopping Centre’s new mall has been cultivated as a green roof with plants generating pollen and nectar to attract wildlife. The green space is already working – two families of bats have taken up residence on the roof.
Shoppers’ paradise NewcastleGateshead has long held the crown of the North East’s top shopping destination and things have just got a whole lot better on both sides of the river. Eldon Square’s £170 million redevelopment is now complete and the doors to the new St Andrew’s Way mall were opened on 16 February. The development has increased the size of the shopping centre from 90,600sq m to nearly 131,000sq m providing space for a four-storey Debenhams, the UK’s largest New Look store and the city’s first Apple shop. Eldon Square’s centre manager expects a significant increase in visitor numbers to the newly developed centre, which already welcomes 30 million shoppers a year. Meanwhile, across the river, Gateshead’s Metrocentre has undergone a £45 million modernisation programme creating Metrocentre
Qube. The mall introduces a new leisure and dining element as well as a bowling alley, the fastest dodgem track in Europe and a new Odeon cinema which will offer the area’s only IMAX theatre.
“Many of Metrocentre’s restaurants have out-performed their targets since opening” 0