Issue - meetings

To consider the attached report.

The Executive Board:

(a)        NOTED the report and the comments raised by County Councillors during consideration of a petition at the meeting of Cambridgeshire County Council on 19 July 2016.

(b)        NOTED the resolutions agreed at the Milton Road Local Liaison Forum meeting held on 9 August 2016.

(c)        NOTED the Joint Assembly’s request to confirm its commitment to having an aspiration for an avenue of mature flowering trees in green verges on each side of Milton Road, consistent with bus reliability and high quality cycling infrastructure provision.

(d)        AGREED, further to (a), (b) and (c) above, to provide a written response within two weeks confirming the Board’s position with regard to the content of the petition itself, the Milton Road Local Liaison Forum resolutions and the request by the Joint Assembly.

Consideration was given to a report which set out the views expressed by County Councillors at the meeting of Cambridgeshire County Council at its meeting on 19 July 2016 in relation to a petition opposing the City Deal plan to widen Milton Road to four lanes of traffic. 

It was noted that the Joint Assembly and Executive Board had received a petition from the same petitioner entitled ‘save the trees and verges on Milton Road’ at their meetings on 2 June 2016 and 9 June 2016, respectively.

In addition to the petition, County Councillor Joceylnne Scutt presented the following resolutions from the Milton Road Local Liaison Forum held on 9 August 2016 in respect of Oaktree Avenue and Hurst Park Avenue:

“The Milton Road Local Liaison Forum calls upon the City Deal Board to:

(i)         remove double bus lanes from its proposals for the section from Hurst Park Avenue to Oak Tree Avenue – that is, to revert to a minimum of three motorised lanes instead of four;

(ii)        remove the diagram/plan from the City Deal website which represents there being a four lane carriageway, or make it clear beyond doubt where it appears that this diagram/plan has no relevance to the proposal;

(iii)       confirm that independent, paid consultants expert in the field of public realm, landscaping, trees and verges will be appointed immediately to the City Deal project, and be an equal part of the Milton Road project as the engineers;

(iv)       consistent with (iii), appoint a firm of independent urban architects to develop new design options for the Milton Road streetscape.”

Councillor Roger Hickford, Chairman of the Joint Assembly, reported that the Joint Assembly at its meeting on 25 August 2016 had noted the content of the petition, and noted and supported resolutions (i) and (iii) above from the Milton Road Local Liaison Forum.  In addition, the Joint Assembly had recommended that the Executive Board made a commitment to having an aspiration for an avenue of mature flowering trees in green verges on each side of Milton Road, consistent with bus reliability and high quality cycling infrastructure provision.

The Executive Board:

(a)        NOTED the report and the comments raised by County Councillors during consideration of a petition at the meeting of Cambridgeshire County Council on 19 July 2016.

(b)        NOTED the resolutions agreed at the Milton Road Local Liaison Forum meeting held on 9 August 2016.

(c)        NOTED the Joint Assembly’s request to confirm its commitment to having an aspiration for an avenue of mature flowering trees in green verges on each side of Milton Road, consistent with bus reliability and high quality cycling infrastructure provision.

(d)        AGREED, further to (a), (b) and (c) above, to provide a written response within two weeks confirming the Board’s position with regard to the content of the petition itself, the Milton Road Local Liaison Forum resolutions and the request by the Joint Assembly.

To consider the attached report.

The Joint Assembly:

a)    NOTED the report and the comments raised by County Councillors during consideration of a petition at the meeting of Cambridgeshire County Council on 19 July 2016.

b)    NOTED AND SUPPORTED the resolutions agreed at the Milton Road Local Liaison Forum meeting held on 9 August 2016, apart from (b).

c)    RECOMMENDED that the Greater Cambridge City Deal Executive Board made a commitment to having an aspiration for an avenue of mature flowering trees in green verges on each side of Milton Road, consistent with bus reliability and high-quality cycling infrastructure provision.

Tanya Sheridan, City Deal Programme Director, presented a report which provided the Joint Assembly with an opportunity to consider the views expressed by the County Council at its meeting on 19 July 2016 in relation to a petition opposing the City deal plan to widen Milton Road to four lanes of traffic.

Councillor, Roger Hickford, Chairman of the Joint Assembly, allowed further public questions that were relevant to this item.

Question from Dorcas Fowler

As an interested member of the public, living in Milton Road, Dorcas Fowler felt that it did not appear that sufficient detailed research had been done on traffic in Milton Road as the basis for the City Deal proposals. She therefore asked why destination statistics had not been collected on Milton Road rush hour traffic on weekdays, both in school term and out of school term.

In addition, she asked why steps had not been taken for a video camera to record traffic using the bus lane along Milton Road throughout the day which she said was likely to support the anecdotal evidence from those living along the road that buses rarely used it, except on approaching junctions.

Dorcas Fowler also expressed concern that a senior transport officer was not present at the meeting to provide a detailed answer to her question.  Councillor Hickford  gave an assurance that a written response would be provided to any aspects of the question that could not be answered fully at the meeting and that this would be made available on the City Deal website.

Tanya Sheridan made the following points in response to the questions:

·         relevant aspects of the Milton Road scheme, such as the likely effects on traffic movements, were modelled using the Cambridge Sub-Regional Model. This model used a wide range of data sources including census, land use and traffic data. A series of traffic counts had been undertaken along Milton Road in 2014 to facilitate the modelling process, which was being refreshed to ensure all data sources were as up to date as possible;

·         the scheme for Milton Road was focussed on delivering improved transport infrastructure to effectively manage the future travel demand resulting from the planned growth in the Greater Cambridge area and beyond, including Northstowe consisting of 10,000 homes, Waterbeach consisting of 8,000 to 9,000 homes and Ely North consisting of 3,000 homes. This growth would mean significantly more journeys into Cambridge, with the already busy Milton Road expected to take a lot of this traffic.  Reliable bus services, which required bus priority measures, would be a key element of the strategy for making sure housing growth did not lead to significantly increased transport congestion and bus lanes were part of that strategy for bus priority. 

·         doing nothing to ensure bus reliability could mean significantly worse air quality in the area;

·         further work would need to be done to consider where bus lanes would be needed to ensure reliability of services.

Councillor Hickford asked if there was evidence of the frequency of use  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5