Tesco CANCELS all charges at Trinity Square Gateshead after gridlock

Tesco has said shoppers who were stuck in its car park in Trinity Square will see their penalty charges quashed after huge delays and gridlock in Gateshead town centre. 

The town centre was left with enormous traffic problems from Friday to Sunday as council bosses were forced to "apologise" for scenes "on a scale not seen previously."

Read more: Gateshead Council agrees to CANCEL hundreds of Askew Road bus lane fines

Earlier this week, The Northern Echo revealed that Gateshead Council had agreed to cancel all fines after hundreds of drivers were forced to use Askew Road bus lane in order to escape the gridlock.

Now Tesco, which owns the car park at Trinity Square, has said no penalty charges will be issued because of the traffic problems faced at the weekend.

The supermarket in Gateshead Picture: GOOGLE

Drivers reported being trapped "bumper to bumper" in the Tesco Extra car park as roads around the area were left at a standstill for more than two hours.

Sam Shanks, from Heworth near Gateshead, said her shopping had been left completely ruined after being stuck during one gridlock on Friday.

She said: “We tried to leave at 1.30pm to pick up our daughter from school at 2.30pm and we were right at the back corner so didn’t realise it was bumper to bumper on the way out. We were stuck in the car park with everyone else for two hours.

“We were already committed and in the queue so couldn’t park up and abandon the car. Luckily for us my mother in law was able to get our daughter so that was one thing we didn’t have to worry about. All the shopping was defrosted.

“Getting out of Tesco the traffic coming along Nelson Road to join up by Wilkinson was bumper to bumper moving inch by inch.”

The area saw roads gridlocked Picture: GOOGLE

She described “the smell of burning clutch and the faces of road rage for a solid two and half hours” until she got out of the jam just after the civic centre.

“The amount of exhaust fumes in the car park was unreal, it was making you sick even with the windows rolled up. That can’t be healthy. And with the rest of the traffic outside to boot I’m sure the CO2 omissions were off the scale.”

Meanwhile, Tik Toker Milly Ferguson said it took an extreme amount of time to travel just a few metres.

She said: “It took about 45 minutes to an hour to get from Tesco to Wilko and road rage was at an all time high.”

Several further drivers contacted The Echo where they raised concern over the fact they had overstayed their time limit of three hours. 

In response, Tesco confirmed penalty charges would be cancelled and that it was now working with the local authority to resolve the issues in the town centre.

A Tesco spokesperson told The Echo: "We’re sorry that customers have been inconvenienced by the traffic issues in Gateshead and so the store management at our Extra store have taken the decision to cancel parking fines that may be given out as a result of people waiting to leave the store.

"We will continue to work with the local authorities to try and resolve the issues in the town centre.”

The council earlier this week said that it had taken the decision not to issue PCNs on the eastern section of the Askew Road bus lane as it said there had been a combination of causes for the lengthy delays.

A council spokesperson said: "We have considered the circumstances surrounding the traffic problems experienced around Gateshead town centre at the end of last week, and recognise the anxiety and inconvenience caused by lengthy delays.

"Taking this into account, we have decided to not to issue penalty charge notices (PCNs) for use of the bus lane on the eastern section of Askew Road. This will apply to all PCNs on Friday 17th Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th September."

Highlighting that their actions had been a gesture of goodwill, the council said traffic seen over the weekend was exceptional and that it was investigating all the reasons behind what happened to minimise the risk of it happening again.

The spokesperson said: "It is already clear that increased traffic driven by people attending events across Tyneside, coinciding with vehicle breakdowns and scheduled bridge maintenance, put extra pressure on our busy town centre road network.

"We have recently affirmed our commitment to retaining the road layouts and traffic management at the north end of Gateshead town centre, and this remains the case."

But describing the next steps following the chaos, the council said that it would be reviewing how it manages traffic going forward. 

He said: "However, we will be reviewing how we manage the town centre network and signage, to try to keep traffic moving and minimise delays.

"Any action that is taken will need to sit within the wider context of the Council’s responsibilities.

"We need to shift the balance away from the private car and towards alternative forms of transport."

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