West Gosforth

West Gosforth
West Gosforth West Gosforth shown within Tyne and Wear
OS grid reference	NZ242685
Coordinates	55°00′40″N 1°37′19″W / 55.011°N 1.622°W / 55.011; -1.622Coordinates: 55°00′40″N 1°37′19″W / 55.011°N 1.622°W / 55.011; -1.622
List of places UK England Tyne and Wear

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%.

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.

There are six schools within the West Gosforth ward:

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 The single-storey building was demolished and has been replaced by a new two-storey building.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.

West Gosforth has a business park, called Regent Centre, which is home to companies such as Virgin Money (formerly Northern Rock).

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.