Agenda item - A1307 Three Campuses to Cambridge Bus, Cycle and Walking Improvements - Consultation Results and Selection of Preferred Option

Report to follow.

The City Deal Executive Board:

a) NOTED the draft consultation report for publication on the Greater Cambridge City Deal website.

b) Reviewed the preferred options and APPROVED further technical work to develop and refine them and other options, which improve public transport reliability, connectivity and access through park & ride expansion, proposals to deliver bus priority and increased cycling through improved infrastructure to support sustainable travel between homes and jobs, particularly:

(i) Road safety enhancements between Linton and Horseheath.

(ii) Improvements to signalised junctions and westbound bus lanes in Linton.

(iii) Measures to improve bus journey times through Linton High Street.

(iv) New and improved cycleways between Babraham and Great Abington/Granta Park.

(v) A new park and ride site near the A11.

(vi) A new westbound bus lane between the new park and ride site and Hinton Way roundabout.

(vii) A new segregated bus route from the Babraham Road park and ride site to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus (CBC). Further work alongside future City Deal prioritisation work will determine if this route is to be on road or a new off road route;

(c) ENDORSED a second public consultation exercise on the preferred options to commence in September 2017 after further workshops have taken place with the Local Liaison Forum and councillors, and AGREED that consultation materials be signed off by the voting members of the Executive Board.

d) APPROVED a one-off spend of £25,000 to undertake some transport modelling, as part of pre-Strategic Outline Business Case work on the dualling of the A1307 between Haverhill and the A11.

Antony Carpen asked his pre-submitted question as detailed in the notice of public questions. In response to this, Graham Hughes, Executive Director Economy,Transport and Environment, Cambridgeshire County Council, made the following points:

· The City Deal and Cambridge Ahead was supporting research to explore the opportunities for an ‘Advanced Very Rapid Transit’ (AVRT) system for the Greater Cambridge area. The outcome of the research would help future proof ongoing investments and find cost-effective solutions to the city’s transport issues, building on current and planned bus infrastructure. The work was one of several studies undertaken as part of the Smarter Cambridge programme.

· The Cambridge-Haverhill rail corridor cost was very significant with a very low benefit to cost ratio (BCR). Due to this it was not being pursued. It was recognised that if the route was extended, there would be more passengers however the cost of providing the service would be more. The cheapest rail option would cost £390 million, with a BCR of 0.99.

· Consultation would take place on the A1307 scheme. Further engagement would take place with the public, businesses and the Local Liaison Forum. There would continue to be opportunities for the public to engage with and scrutinise the proposals as they came forward.

In response to a query from the Chair, the Board was informed that the publication of the study on the AVRT was expected within the following months. The Chair added that the Executive Board and Joint Assembly would need to consider the priorities for tranche 2 projects and would commission further feasibility studies.

The Chair allowed Mr Carpen to ask a supplementary question. Mr Carpen asked officers to engage with Suffolk and Essex County Councils to look at what joint funding may be available and other funding that could be leveraged. The Chair assured Mr Carpen that the City Deal was committed to this dialogue.

Graham Hughes presented the report and set out the key results of the public consultation on the A1307,the majority of respondents to which supported the concepts of improved bus, cycle and walking infrastructure, with strong support indicated for each of the key concepts and principles of the options. Since the consultation closed, technical work and further modelling had been undertaken.The Executive Board was assured that modelling had been updated to include all planned development and growth to 2031 in South Cambridgeshire, Cambridge City, East Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and Haverhill. Mr Hughes stressed that the options were at a very early stage of development, were very broad and needed to be refined. Significant further public engagement was proposed in the run up to the consultation in June 2017.

Councillor Tony Orgee updated the Board on the Local Liaison Forum (LLF) meeting which had discussed the A1307 proposals on 20 February 2017:

· Councillor Orgee informed the Board that the report had been late which had led to the LLF members coming to the meeting without any background knowledge.

· The LLF supported the road safety improvements to the east of Linton, though more detail was wanted.

· Issues with Linton were raised; the LLF pointed out that traffic queued in both directions yet the proposed bus lane was not two way.

· The LLF advised that improvements needed to be made to the traffic lights outside the village college.

· The LLF expressed disbelief at the proposals to narrow the most narrow part of Linton High Street.

· There was support for the improvements to the Babraham to Linton cycleway. There was support for replacing steps with ramps on the A11 bridge crossing and it was felt the safety railings on the A11 bridge needed to be higher.

· The LLF had issues with all of the proposed park and ride sites.

· Concerns were raised regarding the Shelford Bottom roundabout.

· The inbound bus lane from the park and ride to Shelford Bottom was noted, however there was no bus lane outbound.

· Clarity was wanted around whether the solution to the linkage of the park and ride and the biomedical sites, was on or off road.

· It was felt that the focus of the study may be too narrow, with no mention of the Genome Campus.

· Whether there had been enough contact with neighbouring local authorities and landowners was questioned.

· The LLF questioned whether this was the right place for an outer ring park and ride or whether the park and ride should be situated further out.

· The LLF called for a pause to allow for further work to be done on the details of the proposals.

Concern was raised by Councillors Orgee and Hickford regarding whether planned growth had been taken into account, as well as the development that had been approved but that was not in the local plans. Councillor Hickford pointed out that local plans were four to five years old. Councillor Orgee pointed out that there had been substantial planning approvals in Linton in addition to what was in the Local Plan. In response to this Mr Hughes pointed out that:

· Modelling was only ever an approximation, however, as far as was possible, it had taken into account all planning consents.

· The consultants were confident that the modelling picked up all of these issues.

· As coding of local plan allocations took account of granted consents, this was taken into account in the model. However it may not have been possible to take into account planning consents that were given as little as a month before the model was run.

In response to clarity being sought on the A1307 Strategy Group, the Board was informed that the group was looking at dualling the road between Haverhill and Fourwentways, as well as taking into account the A505. The Board was informed that the A1307 proposals would not become obsolete if the dualling that was being considered by the A1307 Strategy Group went ahead. Mr Hughes reiterated the priority to improve the A1307 and informed the Board that a joined up approach was being taken.

Councillor Roger Hickford updated the Board on the Joint Assembly’s discussions regarding this item, informing the Board of the Assembly’s proposal to delay the public consultation until September 2017. This was to allow for officers to undertake at least three half day workshops to allow community input into the process. These would start to take place before May 2017 and would be with a range of representative people.

Councillor Bates advised that it was important to ensure that the Haverhill group were made aware of what was happening in terms of the City Deal and what might happen with the Combined Authority.

The Vice Chairman was keen to ensure that new options could be added to the preferred options list and requested that another option be added to consider how people got from the Addenbrooke’s site into Cambridge. Councillor Burkitt proposed wording be added to recommendation (b) to ensure the Executive Board was not too restricted by the options. Following discussion of this, it was agreed that the wording be amended to ‘develop and refine them and other options’.

The Vice Chairman proposed and it was agreed that all three voting members of the Executive Board would sign off the consultation materials.