Decision details

The purpose of the current A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet consultation is to seek views on the detailed design of the scheme’s preferred route. The council is a statutory consultee because the preferred route will affect parts of South Cambridgeshire.

Purpose

The purpose of the decision is to agree the Council’s response to Highways England. This response is in two parts: a joint response with local authorities; and a separate response on a specific point regarding the need for an all-ways junction at Girton, to provide through traffic the option of avoiding the existing single carriage way on the A1303 between the Hardwick roundabout and J13 of the M11. The consultation deadline is 28 July 2019.

Background

A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet improvements scheme

The A428 between the A1 junction near St Neots and the A1198 Caxton Gibbet is single carriageway with a series of roundabouts and give-way junctions. It experiences major delays during peak periods, resulting in delays and reduced speeds. With few available diversions, incidents and accidents result in disruption over a wide area.

Highways England states that the A428 is an important route in an area of the country where considerable growth in housing and employment is planned. It provides a connection between the M1 and East Coast ports, and is sited within the Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford Arc which is an area of focus for government, seeking to build upon existing economic strengths.

Scheme objectives

Highways England state in the consultation material that the scheme is intended to:

• Reduce congestion and delays
• Increase road capacity
• Improve journey time reliability
• Support the growth identified in local plans
• Improve safety
• Provide alternative access to local roads
• Help the transport network to better cope with road maintenance and with incidents such as collisions, breakdowns, maintenance
• Improve the environmental impact of transport on communities along the existing A428 route
• Provide improved routes between communities for cyclists, horse riders and pedestrians
• Reconnect communities
• Improve safe and effective access for public transport users

Project timeline

The project timeline is as follows:

Previous stages: Preferred Route consultation

The Council, under the previous administration, responded to the consultation on Route Options (Spring 2017), expressing a preference for the Orange Route, which is now the Preferred Route (with some minor revisions). For more details, see the minutes of Cabinet from April 2017 (link provided in the background papers).

Current stage: detailed alignment consultation (3 June – 28 July 2019)

Following the announcement of a preferred route in February 2019, Highways England launched an eight-week consultation on the preferred route on 3 June 2019 and is seeking views on the detailed alignment, junction designs, enhanced routes for non-motorised vehicles and plans for environmental mitigation. The deadline for responses to the consultation is 28 July 2019.

Highways England is consulting for a relatively short period for a project of this magnitude, using timings that don’t fit well with the South Cambridgeshire committee cycle. Officers within the Council from a range of specialisms including planning, communities, health, environmental health, landscape, ecology and legal have prepared comments to inform a full response to the

consultation. It was not possible to prepare a full draft response ahead of the Cabinet report publication deadline. Instead, it was agreed that Cabinet discusses the key response points, adding or amending points raised as appropriate, and specifically delegating to the Deputy Leader to sign-off the full response ahead of the close of consultation on 28 July 2019.

A report on the key response to the consultation was taken to Cabinet (1 July 2019) to allow for open debate by Cabinet of the principle of the scheme and broad response points to the consultation. It was reported that officers were working with the Greater Cambridge Partnership,

Cambridge City Council, Cambridgeshire County Council and Huntingdonshire District Council (referred to in this report as the Authorities) to provide a joint response to the consultation.

During Cabinet four points were raised as follows:

-       Need to note the experience of villages in A14 construction which have faced severe rat running impacts; seek to minimise rat running through villages during as well as after construction

-       Landscape mitigations, lobby for infilling with trees between new road, old road and villages

-       Ensure engagement with local members on the draft response, include those up to the Girton interchange

-       Suggestion to promote all-ways movement at Girton Interchange.

The first two points have been incorporated into the joint response (see Appendix A) and all ward members along the A428 route have been included in the consultation of this out-of-cycle decision.

Proposed Joint Response.

The proposed joint report for approval is provided in Appendix A of this Record of Decision.

Proposed Separate Response.

Following on from the fourth point raised at Cabinet regarding the need for an all-ways junction at the Girton Interchange, it is proposed that South Cambridgeshire submit a separate response in addition to the proposed joint response, as follows:

The joint response includes discussion of the potential transport impacts of the proposed A428 scheme, which extend beyond the limits of the physical improvement works. In addition to the points on this topic set out in the joint response, South Cambridgeshire District Council would like to raise the following points:

·         The Council is concerned that the provision of a single lane on the A428 at the Girton interchange, being created as part of the ongoing A14 improvement project, may be insufficient to accommodate current and future numbers of vehicles that will be using the road, including traffic generated by the A428 improvement scheme subject of the current consultation.

·         The Council asks Highways England to explore the benefits and feasibility of including an all-ways junction at Girton Interchange – a study referenced in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough draft Local Transport Plan[1]. An all-ways junction would provide through traffic with the option of avoiding the existing single carriage way onto the A1303 between the Hardwick roundabout and J13 of the M11. The A1303 route is already congested and any additional traffic on the A428 heading east into Cambridge will further exacerbate the existing congestion levels.

Support the A428 Detail Design Consultation document.

To submit the following response to Highways England:

South Cambridgeshire District Council is also party to the response to the consultation being sent in by Cambridgeshire County Council on behalf of Cambridge City Council, Huntingdonshire District Council, South Cambridgeshire District Council, Cambridgeshire County Council and Greater Cambridge Partnership.

The joint response includes discussion of the potential transport impacts of the proposed A428 scheme, which extend beyond the limits of the physical improvement works. In addition to the points on this topic set out in the joint response, South Cambridgeshire District Council would like to raise the following points:

·           The Council is concerned that the provision of a single lane on the A428 at the Girton interchange, being created as part of the ongoing A14 improvement project, may be insufficient to accommodate current and future numbers of vehicles that will be using the road, including traffic generated by the A428 improvement scheme subject of the current consultation.

·           The Council asks Highways England to explore the benefits and feasibility of including an all-ways junction at Girton Interchange – a study referenced in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough draft Local Transport Plan¹. An all-ways junction would provide through traffic with the option of avoiding the existing single carriage way onto the A1303 between the Hardwick roundabout and J13 of the M11. The A1303 route is already congested and any additional traffic on the A428 heading east into Cambridge will further exacerbate the existing congestion levels.

¹Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority draft Local Transport Plan (2019)

To ensure the interests of South Cambridgeshire District Council are represented.

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