Issue - meetings

Questions by members of the public

Meeting: 10/11/2016 - Greater Cambridge Partnership Executive Board (Item 4)

4 Public questions pdf icon PDF 174 KB

To receive any questions from members of the public.  The standard protocol to be observed by public speakers is attached.

Minutes:

Question by members of the public were asked and answered as follows:

 

Question by Hans Hagen

 

Hans Hagen said that Cambridge Biomedical Campus partners were concerned about the lack of progress in resolving the M11 Junction 11 bus lane issue, noting that the City Deal’s Forward Plan included an item on this issue.  They were disappointed to see that this had slipped to consideration by the Joint Assembly on 1 December 2016 and subsequently the Executive Board on 8 December 2016.

 

He outlined that their understanding was that a separate bus-only slip road from the motorway to the Trumpington Park and Ride was no longer a favoured option, but that the junction could be improved to ensure the smooth flow of buses and cars from the motorway to the Park and Ride.  If this option were to be pursued, he understood that it would be considerably cheaper and faster to implement than the original slip road option. 

 

Mr Hagen emphasised that the need for an improved junction was time critical, making the point that Papworth Hospital would start commuting to the Biomedical Campus from April 2018 and that partners planned to run a bus service to cater from them and other users of the site from the end of 2017.  The take-up of that bus service would depend on it being reliable and fast.  He said that without improvements to Junction 11 there was a significant risk that the increased traffic from April 2018 would result in long tailbacks from the Junction onto the M11. 

 

He therefore asked the Executive Board whether it could take steps to ensure that there was no further slippage of consideration and resolution of this issue and that it was taken forward as a standalone tranche 1 project, rather than as a subset of the Western Orbital project.

 

Bob Menzies, Director of Strategy and Development at Cambridgeshire County Council, confirmed that the report scheduled for consideration by the Joint Assembly and Executive Board on the M11 and the Western Orbital would include timescales for taking the respective schemes forward, together with the outcome of discussions that had occurred with Highways England. 

 

Councillor Francis Burkitt was very keen to address this particular junction in view of the reasons set out in the question.  He himself had met with landowners and spoken to officers and highlighted that South Cambridgeshire District Council had also passed a motion in support of this project. 

 

Councillor Burkitt expressed his frustration, however, that he had been continuously saying that the Board needed evidence to justify the proposals and said that, so far, there had been a significant lack of evidence provided.  Regarding the Biomedical Campus partners’ proposal to run a bus service for employees, he called for factual information outlining how many buses they envisaged running, how many people would potentially use them and the locations where employees were travelling from as this would assist the content of the report and create a stronger argument for supporting the business case associated with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4


Meeting: 03/11/2016 - Greater Cambridge Partnership Joint Assembly (Item 4)

4 Public questions pdf icon PDF 174 KB

To receive any questions from members of the public.  The standard protocol to be observed by public speakers is attached.

Minutes:

It was noted that a public question had been received in relation to the Chisholm Trail, which was the subject of item 8 at this meeting.  It was therefore agreed that the question would be put as part of item 8.

 

Question by Councillor Susan Van de Ven

 

Cambridgeshire County Councillor Susan Van de Ven thanked the Joint Assembly and Executive Board for their support in respect of the A10 Cambridge to Royston cycleway.  Although that scheme missed out on tranche one funding, she said that its serious consideration at the time meant that the scheme was scoped out in detail which exposed its strong potential to make a difference to modal shift away from car use which, in turn, helped mitigate against increasing traffic congestion.  Councillor Van de Ven reported that this had helped attract Cycling Ambition funding worth approximately £3 million for the Harston, Foxton and Shepreth links and highlighted that she had attended the sod cutting ceremony for the City Deal funded Shepreth to Melbourn segment which brought the overall Cambridge to Royston scheme much closer to realisation. 

 

Councillor Van de Ven explained that the following would be necessary to complete the overall A10 cycle scheme:

 

·         further pressing for funding for the final cycle link segment connecting Mebourn and Royston, which represented a key micro-economic zone with a cluster of very significant employment centres.  Councillor Van de Ven said that strong localised travel to work flows had been identified and she was encouraged that the Local Enterprise Partnership was working on funding opportunities, emphasising that this needed support from all quarters;

·         Foxton level crossing was becoming an ever increasing obstruction to everything that moved on the A10 corridor, including the new cycleway, and Councillor Van de Ven expressed her disappointment that Network Rail had shelved its feasibility study to close the crossing and build a bypass with a bridge or underpass.  The level crossing was on the City Deal’s list of key components for unlocking sustainable transport potential along the A10 corridor and she therefore hoped that the Joint Assembly and Executive Board could put their weight behind encouraging Network Rail to properly address the crossing.

Councillor Van de Ven took this opportunity to report what was happening locally to help the area’s potential for local and regional travel. 

 

It was noted that the Meldreth, Shepreth and Foxton Community Rail Partnership comprised of County and District Councillors, representatives of the rail industry and was supported by organisations such as Railfuture, AstraZeneca, Melbourn Science Park and Shepreth Wildlife Park.  She reported that, through the Partnership, the Wildlife Park had brokered a discount admission ticket for people arriving at Shepreth by train, with 10% of its visitors now arriving by that means, and that Melbourn Science Park now operated a shuttle bus to and from Meldreth Station due to it having run out of car parking space.  She added, however, that none of these stations had any shuttle bus turning facilities or bus service connections, stating  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4