When a good opportunity presents itself to solve a long standing problem, as tax payers we would expect our councils to take the opportunity and alleviate the suffering that the problem is causing. But that does not seem to be the case with Cambridgeshire County Council and the problem of the A1303 Madingley Road between the M11 Junction 13 and the A428 West.
The County council’s Transport Strategy for Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire does not contain any coherent plan that will solve the problem. It also transpires that at the behest of the County council, the proposed A14 upgrade by the Highways Agency (HA) does not include any plans to provide the much needed A428 West to the M11 South movement at Girton Interchange. What a missed opportunity, particularly in the light of the proposed Bourn Airfield Development and West Cambourne!
I found out about this missed opportunity at a briefing last week for councillors held at South Cambridgeshire District Council offices, attended by Mike Evans of the Highways Agency and two members of his team. Mr Evans gave members a good overview of the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon Improvement Scheme, and then talked us through the various changes that were being proposed, particularly at the major junctions. I had chosen to attend the briefing because I wanted to know how the upgrade would affect the A428 which is destined to carry ever more traffic in the light of Bourn Airfield Development proposals.
At question time, I asked Mr Evans why the upgrade proposals for the Girton Interchange did not include the A14 West to M11 South movement, and he replied that the indication from above was that there should be no additional movement created at that junction. The focus was to be to improve the junction but maintain the current movements. This means that traffic travelling from A14 East joining the M11/A14 North would no longer need to go through the convoluted clover route that currently exists which crosses with the M11 North to A14 East movement.
I asked if the HA had thought to do a traffic survey on the A1303 stretch of road, or even if he had ever driven along the road. He admitted no survey had been done, and yes he had driven along the road, but outward from Cambridge, so had not experienced the congestion.
I told him that the A1303 section of road was seriously congested in the mornings, and that it was a long standing problem that everyone knew about, including South Cambridgeshire District Council administration, and the County council administration, and that if he was not aware of it, then there certainly was some shenanigans going on. Furthermore, I explained that the access route for cars travelling from the A428 west wanting to get on the M11 South was through the A1303 Madingley Road, and that this road was being used as the access to the trunk road for which the HA is responsible in addition to local traffic wanting to get into Cambridge. Surely, it was only right that the HA provide proper access to its roads. (The alternative route was down the villages (Hardwick, Caldecote, Bourn) onto the B1046 through Toft, Comberton and Barton to Junction 12).
When I asked if the current A14 upgrade plans had taken into account the proposals for 5000 extra houses along the A428 corridor, courtesy of the Bourn Airfield Development and West Cambourne proposals, I was shocked but not surprised to hear that those did not play any part in the thinking of the HA at the time the new upgrade plans were drawn up. One would have expected that even when the County became aware of the development proposals, it would have discussed it with the HA. However, that would be expecting too much then, wouldn’t it ….
It was rather infuriating to hear Mr Evans later on in the session refer to the information I gave him about the congestion on A1303 Madingley Road as “anecdotal” evidence that there was a problem on that road. Ooooh, that word “anecdotal” gets my blood boiling. It is overused, and in my view is demeaning to the person providing the information. It is used in government circles to dismiss information that would otherwise cause the organisation to rethink a proposal or strategy or decision.
So after the briefing, I asked for further clarification of the HA and it was then that I discovered that the County Council was complicit in the decision not to add the extra and what a lot of people would say is a much needed movement to the Girton Interchange. Well, seeing as the early discussions on the changes took place at some point in the past eighteen months, we can thank Mr Nick Clarke, the former County Council leader, and his then colleagues for the glaringly obvious missed opportunity.
So what was the reason for not including this solution …. it would cost too much. But it has already cost too much in people’s time, business costs and in lives lost! The M11 and A14 West are typical examples of roads that were built on the cheap to save money…. but eventually not saving anything and end up costing more. When will the powers that be learn to do things properly?
So it is that between them, South Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridgeshire County Council propose to put 5000 new houses on the A428 corridor, generating at least an additional 8000 cars (and that is a conservative estimate), with potentially over 20,000 additional movements per day along the A428 but have no plans to add extra road capacity, and no proper solution to the A1303 Madingley Road traffic problem – except to put a dedicated bus lane along it (where is the space?) and force us all to use buses. What a recipe for grid locked roads, rat running and the detrimental impact on the amenity of the villages west of Cambridge/M11 that will be affected by the rat-running.
Wake up Highways Agency, Cambridgeshire County Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council. You cannot expect to have Bourn Airfield Development and West Cambourne without a proper solution to the issue of traffic on our local roads!!
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