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West Gosforth is an electoral ward in the north of Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. It was created in 2004. The population of the ward is 9,681, increasing to 9,991 at the 2011 Census, 3.7% of the total population of Newcastle upon Tyne. Car ownership in the area is 78.1%, higher than the city average of 54.7%.
Contents
Other wards in Gosforth include East Gosforth (covering Gosforth south of the High Street, South Gosforth and High West Jesmond) and Parklands (which includes northern Gosforth including Melton Park and Brunton Park). The Coxlodge area of Gosforth is in Fawdon Ward.
Education
There are six schools within the West Gosforth ward:
Recreation and leisure
The ward many large green spaces including Dukes Moor, Coxlodge Welfare Ground and St. Nicholas Park. The ward has two Tyne and Wear Metro stations: Regent Centre and Wansbeck Road.
The ward has a library and swimming pool. In November 2006, the old Gosforth library was closed and moved to a nearby temporary location. The single-storey building was demolished and has been replaced by a new two-storey building. The new Gosforth Library and Customer Service Centre building was formally opened on 8 February 2008 by John Grundy, a local resident and television presenter. The library was used as a polling station for the 2008 local elections; a temporary hut was used the previous year.
Business
West Gosforth has a business park, called Regent Centre, which is home to companies such as Virgin Money (formerly Northern Rock).
Shopping
Wansbeck Road has a small shopping centre, which includes a small Co-operative food supermarket; Until 2008 there was also a FreshXpress/Kwik Save store, which was demolished and has been re-built from scratch as a Netto (now Asda). This Netto/Asda store opened on 5 November 2009 and also used the former land of the Collingwood pub. Following Asda's buyout of Netto this store was converted into an Asda, their second such store in Gosforth. The west half of Gosforth High Street is also in the ward.
Ward boundary
The West Gosforth ward boundary starts at the Blue House roundabout and heads north along the Great North Road/Gosforth High Street (odd numbers included.) Opposite the Asda Superstore, it turns west at the roundabout and follows the Metro line to Wansbeck Road station. It heads south along Wansbeck Road to Jubilee Road before turning east along Jubilee Road (odd numbers included) to the Welford Daycare Centre. The boundary continues west to the rear of St Nicholas Nature Reserve and the rear of the properties on Prince’s Meadow onto Kenton Road (Numbers 23-59 Wall Close included.) It continues south along Kenton Road to Salter’s Road, then turns west to the rear of Kenton Park Shopping Centre and continues south to the rear of Wyndham County Primary School to Nuns Moor/Newcastle United Golf Course. Finally it travels east along the moor to the Grandstand Road/ Kenton Road junction and continues east along Grandstand Road to the Blue House roundabout.
Charts and tables
Owner occupied property stands at 80.4% much higher than the city average of 53.3%. The properties are as follows.