Cambridge City Deal

[LocalEditorCambridge]

There's just about a month left to fill in a questionnaire about the proposed plans to deal with congestion in Cambridge.

I've linked the details here for anyone interested or affected and obviously this thread is a chance to discuss & ask questions. It will impact anyone who drives or cycles during peak times.

details of plans

link to survey

Does anyone have the email address that you can send comments to?

I have already done this (and the survey which only gives you one thin box at the end to say anything sensible!) but want to send a follow up email and have lost the address. The webpage doesn't seem to be working (for me at least) at the moment.

Thanks!

It's amazing how often that website isn't working - one might almost think they don't want people to know what they're up to. Contact details below gleaned from a consultation earlier this year but I think they are still current.

There's a petition: www.change.org/p/city-deal-we-say-no-to-cambridge-peak-time-congestion-points?recruiter=488282354&utm_source=share_for_starters&utm_medium=copyLink

The councillors seem determined to stay on message about this - I saw one of the Romsey councillors (Dave Baigent) on FB saying that the negative effects would be miniscule when compared with the benefits - easy enough to say if you don't live on a road that would be affected.

Just a reminder that the exhibition for this scheme is being held in St Paul's Church (Hills Rd) from 3.30 to 6.30 today. So if you want to express you views in person as well as in print (always a good idea), you can do it there or on any of the other remaining dates:

Trumpington / Thurs 22 September 17.00-20.00 Trumpington Village Hall, High Street, Cambridge CB2 9HZ

Cambridge / Mon 26 September 17.00-20.00 The Old Library, Emmanuel College, St Andrew’s Street, Cambridge CB2 3AP

Cambourne / Tues 27 September 17.30-19.30 The Hub, High Street, Cambourne CB23 6GW

Chesterton / Wed 28 September 16.30-19.30 Shirley Community Nursery & Primary School, Nuffield Road, Cambridge CB4 1TF

Cherry Hinton / Mon 3 October 17.00-20.00 Cherry Hinton C of E Primary School, High Street, Cambridge CB1 9HH

Addenbrooke’s / Tues 4 October 11.00 – 14.30 The Concourse, Addenbrooke’s, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 0QQ

Linton / Tues 4 October 16.30-19.30 Linton Village College, Linton CB21 4JB

Comberton / Wed 5 October 17.30-20.00 Comberton Sports & Arts, West Street, Comberton CB23 7DU

Some answers (or not!) to questions in the Cambridge News:

www.cambridge-news.co.uk/watch-city-deal-bosses-respond-to-cambridge-news-readers-questions-on-congestion/story-29745072-detail/story.html

The most obvious problem for me, as a resident just north of Victoria Road, is that I will no longer be able to drive to the south of the city during those hours. If Queens' Road, Grange Road, and East Road are all closed, there's no other route. That means that I wouldn't be able to drive to my GP's surgery and would have to move to one nearer home and we'd no longer be able to drive to Parkside Pools.

I suppose the question is whether the city would lose so much traffic that it would become massively safer to cycle. Currently I couldn't cycle with my son because there are too many cars. If cycling became safer, particularly from north Cambridge to Hill's Road Sixth Form College, then that would be great.

I find it hard to look forward and accurately predict how it will all be after the change though. Interesting!

I wonder how they propose to fund Parkside Pools once all the customers can not get there any more?

The way I understand it, they are planning to put timed bollards at key points. For example some where on Hills road. So my colleague, instead of going down hills road will do a torturous detour with CH road and residential streets, to get to work avoiding the pinch point. How will that make cycling safer if small roads get clogged with ratrunners, more than they already are? Am I getting this wrong?

yes, there are many many places where I would not be able to drive either, trying to get in or out of the Kite area.

It's not a solution to congestion to just make it impossible to drive in those places. Sure, there's no congestion, because nobody is allowed to be there any longer. How is that making any of those people's journeys any better? It's not.

If they put in more buses that were cheaper, went where people wanted to go, went more often, people would choose to use them and there'd be less congestion. If there were more cycle parking or lanes, then people would choose to cycle. They need to just let it be self managing - if congestion is bad enough, people will choose to do other things.

Cam Poster, small point but the system won't use physical bollards rather Automatic Number Plate Recognition. The bollards that are already in place will also be replaced by ANPR.

One of the things that bothers me is what motorists will do if they enter (say) Grange Road in good faith, thinking they will pass through the ANPR point before the 4pm curfew but then get stuck in traffic and realise that they will incur the fine. I can imagine chaotic u-turns all over the city as people try to beat the curfew.

Another point which I haven't seen addressed at all is where tourist coaches will drop off/collect their passengers. The Cambridge News ran a story earlier this year about the rising volumes - where the hell are they all going to go? www.cambridge-news.co.uk/fears-cambridge-could-be-heading-for-tourist-disaster-as-thousands-flock-to-city-centre/story-29549249-detail/story.html

Also, all the people who might now say 'great, I'll cycle more as it'll be safer' or 'oh it won't affect me as I can walk and cycle already' are not always considering the fact that because it will affect so many independent businesses in the centre, there won't necessarily be anything worth walking into the centre for. The big chain places will survive, sure, but the independent shops will struggle, and the services. Some people are assuming that everything will stay the way it is now, but just be empty of traffic, and making their judgements on that, whereas people who run businesses and services in the area are saying that they may have to considering closing or moving elsewhere. It'll be a sanitised, tourist-centric place.

We're now into the last week of the consultation period and I think it's clear that many many residents and local businesses are starting to wake up to the implications of what the City Deal is proposing. Please do complete the survey form before 10th October: www.gccitydeal.co.uk/congestion There are also two petitions running and a protest event on Parkers Piece this Thursday morning.

As a swimming academy that delivers after-school lessons at DW Sports Fitness, St John's College School and Clare Hall (all situated near proposed control points), we have received a fair few worried notices from our customers about this.

Insofar as poorly thought-out solutions go, the PCCPs seem exemplary (I have heard of them referred to as a 1990's solution to a 2020's problem).

I'll be joining the #SlowdownShowdown on Mill Road on Thursday 6th October at 8am along with other representatives of small businesses that will be hurt by the PCCPs.

Link to a Change.org petition that you can sign

Only around 150 signatures needed - I'm sure we're far from the only small business that will be affected.
Why should residents of Cambridge be punished just for living here, much less by a scheme we never voted for!

• Nick Knights

Ops Manager, Elite Swimming Academy

As you can tell from my name, we're the southern side of the city. Usually me and the dds cycle to school past one pccp, to get to work would then require going past one of two more that basically landlock my place of employment, and DH's work is on the other side of a fourth after the school drop-off. Should either of us find ourselves needing to drive (unwell child, abysmal weather, offsite work events) this would become impossible.

It's such a badly thought out idea.

As Elite says, there's a protest tomorrow at 8am, if anyone is free then. Apparently, the county council highways dept are very cross with us all for having the nerve to stick our noses into their nice scheme . Apparently one Petersfield councillor, Ann Sinott, is suggesting that the trial planned for next year should be held off until the impact of the new Cambridge North station can be measured on city centre traffic, which seems very sensible.

Bump!
Please sign the petition if you haven't already.
Stop The City Deal

Also make sure you comment on the online questionnaire (biassed as it is!) that the petition links to.

There's another lib dem petition too, worth signing them all.

And keep telling people about - the deadline is tomorrow night!!

I have finally just filled in the online survey and feel sooo much better for having told them what I think about their ridiculous scheme. The survey is biased - but we are perfectly at liberty to point that out in the free text section at the end.

The council are doing a poor job at explaining the plans, and they clearly need to iron out details. In particular they haven't mentioned that they are considering making the blockages one way only, so nobody would be 'trapped' inside an area. As it is controlled by numberplate recognition, they could also very easily set up exemptions, for people with blue badges for instance or essential keyworkers like district nurses.

But beyond that - we need radical solutions, and it's hard to think of many that wouldn't cause total uproar. I live right by one of the proposed control points (as does one of the councillors mentioned above, so it's not right to say he is unaffected by all this). It would certainly make life difficult. On the other hand, our life is also made a misery by traffic. Walking my kids to school along mill road feels like taking their lives into my hands twice daily - it's atrocious. There are lots of people I know who are happy to rail against car culture and pollution in the abstract - but the instant it affects them personally they are up in arms.

I hate it when people say that blue badge holders will be allowed in as if that sorts out the disabled.

Getting a blue badge is hard. You have to be permanently or severely disabled. To get one automatically after a PIP claim you need to be unable to walk more than 50m.

If you broke your leg and needed six weeks in a wheelchair or on a mobility scooter, you wouldn't get a blue badge for that. If you live in a village and your appointment at Addenbrooke's is at 9:30 you will be affected by all the traffic that has diverted to non-closed roads.

I don't understand why they don't put on proper commuter public transport instead of this system. Like express buses instead of buses that meander all round the villages. Or buses that could take you to an outlying train station instead of being completely separate systems. There are just so many other things they could do.

It's definitely not being proposed as any sort of way to improve pollution, purely congestion. Even the Green party is against it. It will divert people to far, far longer journeys, and increase congestion elsewhere.

I think the independent businesses will be badly hit, and the character of the city centre will change. It will be better for tourism and big business, which is probably what is profitable to the council long term. But a shame for residents, who like the diversity of some of the smaller, diverse shops and services.

People will be able to cycle in to the centre, to all those chain stores and mobile phone shops. Many of the people who support this haven't realised how hard some of the small businesses will find it or that they will close, as they are thinking purely of journey time/ease, and not whether there will be much of a destination left a few years down the line.

I also hear that the proposed trials are to be in the summer, when there isn't school traffic, when people are happier to cycle and walk, etc, which I can't imagine is going to give a very representative result.

I don't understand why they don't put on proper commuter public transport instead of this system. Like express buses instead of buses that meander all round the villages.

This, a thousand times this and I said as much in the survey. There are many towns/large villages within the Cambridge commuter zone that have appalling bus services.

In case people haven't seen this, some good news: www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/city-deal-bosses-step-back-12055531