I hadn’t seen my neighbours for a while They come and go when I am resting But today we met quickly with a smile Even with ‘lockdown’ pressing!
“Hello, are you alright? I thought you’d fallen And tumbled downstairs, or Perhaps a cupboard had toppled And pinned you down tight!”.
“The whole house moved, My ears are ringing, I hope the structure’s still safe, Are we all in the same place?!”.
“Ah I see a vapour trail, So it was a plane Breaking the ‘sound barrier’, Showing complete disdain!”.
Scrambled to intercept A plane with no I.D., Fast enough to frighten Both you and me.
But it’s reassuring to know The UK is safe, No enemy allowed Into our space.
If only we could rid Ourselves of ‘Covid’, With such vigour and speed We would be truly freed.
Ed Lloyd Jenkins January 2021
For details of the reason for the sonic boom, heard shortly after 1pm on Tuesday 12th January 2021, see Huge sonic boom heard over Cambridge – Cambridge Independent.
As we negotiate recent changes to Mill Road it has become apparent that drivers subconsciously behave differently along different stretches of the road. Picture one shows how three car drivers chose to pavement-park opposite a build out.
While further down the road on a narrower stretch of the road, Picture Two, shows how a driver uses the build-out as protection for his parked car and helpfully stays on the road.
This allows pedestrians to use the narrow pavement unimpeded. Thank you grey car driver.
Mill Road and its surrounding streets – like much of Cambridge – suffer from pavements which offer a poor environment for pedestrians, particularly parents with toddlers, and people with disabilities.
The Living Streets Cambridge group was set up to tackle Cambridge’s poorly-maintained pavements – pavements which are cracked and rutted, causing trip hazards and puddles to form, with poorly-sited street furniture adding to the pedestrian obstacle-course…
Rainwater conduit with eroded screed covering, uneven, subsided brick and flag paving, highway signage obstructions, 91 Mill Road CB1 2AW
Overgrown hedges create further obstacles as do wheelie-bins left permanently on the pavement. Living Streets Cambridge believe that these obstacles should be tackled, too.
Black, green and blue wheelie-bins and ‘side waste’ block a narrow pavement, off Mill Road. Photo taken two days before blue bin collection, nine days ahead of black bin collection and 15 days before green bin collection.
Too little action has been taken to address these issues, in part because no register exists to identify all of the problems and bring them to the attention of the highway authority (Cambridgeshire County Council) and City Council (responsible for refuse and recycling collections).
Unregulated pavement parking adds to the problem, blocking pavements and contributing to further cracking, rutting and subsidence, despite Cambridgeshire County Council being granted powers to tackle this nearly a decade ago. Read more about those powers here.
Little room for pedestrians, when this delivery-driver prioritises vehicular traffic. Note, too, the damage to the kerbs and paving-stones.
Readers can help Living Streets Cambridge by taking the time to complete the survey, giving as much detail about problems and locations as possible.
And please let friends, neighbours, and others who may be interested, know about the survey, by forwarding the link to the survey, or this blogpost to them.
Living Streets is a UK Charity – Registered Charity Nº 1108448 (England & Wales) SC039808 (Scotland) – “for everyday walking”.
We want a nation where walking is the natural choice for everyday local journeys.
Our mission is to achieve a better walking environment and inspire people to walk more.
In many residential areas of the city the environment for pedestrians remains challenging due to a combination of high traffic levels, narrow pavements and poor maintenance.
As investment in road maintenance has fallen away, footways have become increasingly dilapidated and dangerous. It will take a significant, concerted effort to get this put right.
The Living Streets Cambridge group is determined to provide a voice and a campaigning platform for pedestrians in the city, an imperative that has increased in importance since the pandemic struck and ‘active travel’ has become a greater focus of policy.
What are the next steps? When will the scheme be reviewed?
Consultation
We invite comments on the closure of Mill Road Bridge to all vehicles except buses, cycles and pedestrians. Please send your comments by email to [redacted as the consultation is now closed – Web Editor]
The first six months of the Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO) are the consultation stage during which we record all feedback.
A survey runs between 12 noon on Monday 9 November until 23:59 on 24 December 2020 to offer an additional opportunity for people to have their say on the changes and their impact on Mill Road.
We will collate all feedback, whether from emails, letters or the survey and present it to the Highways and Transport Committee when they make their decision on whether to continue the trial, make the changes permanent or to re-open the bridge to motorists.
Note the closure date of the consultation; Christmas Eve. As Monday 28th is a public holiday; the earliest that all of the comments could begin to be considered and collated would be on Tuesday 29th December 2020.
Readers who have completed the survey themselves will note that there were quite a few sections with space for ‘free expression’ of ideas. These will take some time to assess and aggregate.
The Highways and Transport Committee will hold a virtual meeting on Tuesday 19th January 2021 at 10:00. Click here for meeting details. There is no further information at the time of writing but, if readers keep returning to it, they will, eventually, find a full agenda pack for the meeting published in PDF format to read/download. In amongst that will be a summary of all of the feedback on the Mill Road scheme.
As for members of the public ‘attending’ (virtually)…
To help people follow the debates at Cambridgeshire County Council we are live web streaming on YouTube our Council meetings. You can also follow along on Twitter with the hashtag #CCCmtgs.
We hope this information is of help, to all of our readers and subscribers, whether for or against the scheme, or (like most people) wanting some limitations but not these exact ones.
The former Travis Perkins site is coming up for redevelopment. It is a site earmarked for housing and, in advance of creating designs for the scheme, a series of Zoom consultations have taken place hosted by Finlay McNab of The Devonshire Gardens Team. They took place this week on Wed 2nd, Thur 3rd and Fri 4th December.
The purpose of these meetings is to identify design priorities which are in accord with local needs and aspirations. City Cllrs. Mike Davey and Richard Robertson together with County Cllr. Linda Jones participated. In addition there were half a dozen other interested people from local community groups. There were 3 sessions:
Sense of Place and character,
Liveability, Health and Open Spaces,
Cycling and walking.
Very soon the first meeting on Sense of Place and character started straying off-topic onto Open Spaces. It is not easy to identify what Mr McNab took away from the discussion although at one stage he asked whether he was right in assuming that the community was not interested in the physical style of the built environment but in how space was used. Several participants contested this, and stressed that physicality was important to the community and the use of traditional building materials is valued.
Participants also stressed that there was a strong sense that creating an ecologically rich environment is important to our community and this should extend beyond allocating open space for grass and providing play equipment for infants. Flower gardens with seating were identified as important, tree planting and possibly roof gardens were mentioned. A participant from Marmalade Lane co-housing community made two valuable observations.
Tarmac is an important material for infants, how else can children learn to skate or ride bikes?
Community gardens and food gardens would fit in well with Mill Road as the road is all about good food!
Thursday’s meeting concentrated on landscape design and the need for open space to provide benefit to a wide range of demographics. The discussion started from the agreed premise that open space is important for physical health and mental well-being; in addition there was a strong lobby who consider that the opportunity to cultivate is a basic human urge and the presence of plants mitigates the ill-effects of pollution.
Community participants stressed that teenagers often used open space more than other groups and that they often felt vulnerable in places where there are dead ends. There was almost a consensus that wild open space worked well on many levels, particularly if tree planting was accompanied by planted undergrowth which encourages bio-diversity.
There was strong support for providing moving water in public landscapes. Inclusivity was considered a priority which led the discussion on to management structures for community organised facilities such as cafés and gardens. A participant argued that 2 seater side-by-side benches where not good for social interaction and that movable seating should be provided. Other suggestions were mazes bordered by hedges which a) provide long runs and a sense of travelling in a really small area and b) satisfy or stimulate a sense of curiosity and adventure in all age groups.
Mill Road Traders’ Association is considering legal action over the Mill Road bridge traffic restrictions, introducing a ‘low traffic neighbourhood’ on the basis that the scheme is not truly ‘experimental’.
The allegation of illegality
In a press release, dated 12 December 2020, Mill Road Traders’ Association claim that:
The county council had no lawful authority to implement the Mill Road closure through an experimental traffic regulation order because the order violates section 9(1) of the Road Traffic Regulations Act 1984, which requires that an experimental order may only be made for a valid experimental purpose.
Shapour Meftah, Cantab Millennium, Chairman Mill Road Traders’ Association
Traders claim that the order to close Mill Road bridge to to all traffic except cycles and buses was “illegal” – and they have demanded that Cambridgeshire County Council reopens it immediately.
On Tuesday 15 December 2020, traders Abdul Arain (al:Amin), Sheila Gresham (Cambridge Antiques Centre) and Patty (Gwydir Street Hive) were interviewed by BBC Radio Cambridgeshire journalist Sarah Varey. Breakfast show presenter Andy Lake asked City Councillor Dave Baigent (Romsey, Labour) for a response.
Click below to hear the clip.
We noted that Abdul Arain, felt threatened by lorries and buses when cycling. We wondered about this and asked County Councillor Linda Jones, who responded:
We have always had lorry traffic in the Petersfield stretch of Mill Rd and any new development will generate a temporary increase.Lorry drivers can sometimes be inconsiderate but I have had few complaints – and none about buses at all.
County Councillor Linda Jones (Petersfield, Labour)
The coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis has had a terrible impact on the lives and health of many UK citizens, as well as severe economic consequences. But it also resulted in cleaner air and quieter streets, transforming the environment in many of our towns and cities.
And millions of people have discovered, or rediscovered, cycling and walking. In some places, the initial lockdown period saw a 70% rise in the number of people on bikes – for exercise, or for safe, socially distanced travel.
We need people to carry on cycling, and to be joined by millions more , particularly while public transport capacity is still reduced.
And millions of people have discovered, or rediscovered, cycling and walking. In some places, the initial lockdown period saw a 70% rise in the number of people on bikes – for exercise, or for safe, socially distanced travel.
We need people to carry on cycling, and to be joined by millions more , particularly while public transport capacity is still reduced…
The government therefore expects local authorities to make significant changes to their road layouts to give more space to cyclists and pedestrians. Such changes will help embed altered behaviours and demonstrate the positive effects of active travel…
The amendments introduce an emergency procedure for the making of temporary traffic orders. The main change is to the means of advertising the order, which can be via digital means. Once the order has been made, a second notice still needs to be published for information within 14 days. This is via a newspaper, where these are available, or via digital means if it is not reasonably practicable to publish in a newspaper.
Cambridgeshire County Council’s scheme documentation
Cambridgeshire County Council issued a press release in June 2020 stating:
The Government has given authorities funding through the Combined Authority, to deliver pop-up cycle lanes, wider pavements, safer junctions and bus-only corridors. The Council has worked closely with city and district councils to prepare a list of schemes to get more people walking and cycling…
Speaking yesterday, Tuesday 15 December 2020, Piero d’Angelico claimed that the Mill Road Traders’ Association are advised by a barrister that ‘a judge had overturned’ a similar experimental scheme in London. It was unclear from the conversation which scheme had been ‘overturned’, nor the precise action which the Mill Road Traders’ Association planned. We assume that this would be a High Court application for judicial review. We have found a number of such applications, which we list below.
The publication of this post by Mill Road Bridges should not be considered an endorsement of the views of Mill Road Traders’ Association. Neither should this statement be read as one of opposition to their views. Our mission is to facilitate information and debates about all matters affecting Cambridge’s Mill Road. This post is open for (polite) comments.
The Museum of Cambridge plays host to a multimedia exhibition inspired by the history of Ironworks
The FORGE exhibition presents a thought-provoking look and celebration of how the community has flourished through rediscovering and making new connections with local heritage, nature and traditions. FORGE will take you on a journey through the museum to explore artefacts from the past to the present-day. The display highlights how the revival and sharing of these traditions and crafts over the past year has given us hope and helped to inspire a kinder future.
Click the image to view/download a printable PDF of the poster
Ironworks is a flagship development by Cambridge Investment Partnership, an equal partnership between Cambridge City Council and Hill Investment Partnerships.
Helen’s video Sturton Town in Victorian Times tells the story of how the neighbourhood was open fields up until September 1869 when it was sold to Joseph Sturton, a building developer. Click to view.
Click the image to view the video
Come along to the Museum of Cambridge between the 19th December 2020 and the 8th February 2021 and see the FORGE installations throughout the museum. The exhibitions and digital displays will shed new light on the former occupants of the homes around Ironworks and how the area’s past has informed the artworks that will feature within the public spaces being created as part of the new homes being built.
Throughout the exhibition will be a series of online events and workshops for audiences to delve a little deeper into some of the presentations, for a full list and up-to-date information please visit this link during the exhibition dates.
Opening Times Thursdays to Saturdays 1pm – 5pm 1st Sunday of the month 12pm-4pm There is no need to book your visit: tickets can be purchased at the Museum.
Holiday Opening Hours The Museum will be closed for the bank holidays on Friday 25th and Saturday 26th December and Friday 1st January. The Museum has added an additional opening day on Wednesday 30th December 12pm-5pm.
Please note that a maximum of 18 visitors are allowed in the museum at any time and an entrance fee is payable. The date and duration of this exhibition are subject to HM Government’s covid-19 restrictions and the Museum of Cambridge‘s own risk mitigation policies. For up-to-date information and opening hours please visit the Museum of Cambridge website (here) or phone 01223 355159.
The Museum of Cambridge is at 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge CB3 0AQ.
The East West Rail (EWR) project is planned to connect Oxford to Cambridge and then on to the east coast or Haven ports. Part of the project near Oxford has already been constructed but the Central Section between Bedford and Cambridge is currently being designed. EWR Co. took a decision to approach Cambridge from the south, rather than the north, and various route alignments are being prepared for a public consultation in early 2021. The Eastern Section, eastwards from Cambridge, is still in the very early planning stages.
Campaign groups Cambridge Approaches and CamBedRailRoad, have joined forces and are calling for alternative approach options to be considered. We believe that the current approach is misguided and will result in massive amounts of noise from freight trains in central Cambridge, potentially at night.
WILL FREIGHT TRAINS USE THE EWR?
Yes.
Reliable information points to significant freight train use on the EWR route between the east coast Haven ports (including Felixstowe) and Cambridge through to Bedford and Oxford.
The Network Rail report into routeing of rail freight forecasts1 shows that about 50 freight trains (all types) per day could use EWR in 2043. This assumes that the route will be electrified (which is not yet certain) and significant capacity upgrades including a new chord where EWR connects with the West Coast Main Line at Bletchley. The Cambridge to Newmarket single track line would also need upgrading to realise this capacity.
At opening of the EWR in 2025, we estimate that freight demand would be about 20 – 30 freight trains (all types) per day based on England’s Economic Heartland report.2 This would also require capacity upgrade of the Cambridge to Newmarket line.
The EWR Consortium who are, in contrast to the EWR Company, responsible for delivering the EWR east of Cambridge have recently signed a contract with rail consultants Steer. In the draft tender documents, EWR Consortium have stated:
East West Rail presents a huge opportunity to become a secondary freight route, enabling more services to bypass congested London routes currently used to get to the South West, Midlands and the North. It also presents an opportunity to move aggregates for the development of new housing and nationally significant projects, such as Sizewell C.3
Even EWR Company have confirmed that the route will be freight capable in responses to our specific questions on this. It is possible that spent fuel rods from Sizewell C nuclear power station will use the route on the way to Sellafield.
WILL FREIGHT TRAINS RUN AT NIGHT?
Cambridge Approaches think this is likely.
While it is not possible to be definitive about exact numbers of night-time freight trains, we think that it would not be feasible to run the forecast number of freight trains during the day with the projected passenger timetable of about 4 EWR trains per hour into and out of Cambridge, especially using the freight figures for 2043 (see above).
This scenario is endorsed by the England’s Economic Heartland report referred to above (p.67) which states: “However, there is a risk that capacity for freight trains, in terms of daytime timetable slots, will be limited.”
This has been further verbally confirmed by Ian Parker, EWR Co.’s Operations Director, who said that passenger and freight rail traffic do not mix well together.
WILL TRAINS RUN BENEATH MILL ROAD BRIDGE?
Yes: with a southerly approach into Cambridge, there are no feasible alternative routes for EWR freight trains going towards Felixstowe – see sketch maps below.
East West Rail indicative route map
Cambridge area map, showing key rail lines
Cambridge City could potentially ban all night-time freight trains from central Cambridge. While this would alleviate the potential night-time noise issue, the huge environmental opportunity of maximising the reduction in road freight would be missed. The Department for Transport’s Rail Freight Strategy states that each tonne of freight transported by rail reduces carbon emissions by 76% compared to road (as of 2016).4
The obvious alternative would be a northern approach into Cambridge. This would allow freight trains to avoid passing through Cambridge Central station. There are several options possible, some entirely avoiding the built-up areas of Cambridge and others that join the existing Cambridge to Newmarket line via a new chord on a corner of Coldham’s Common. All could be routed to pass close to new housing developments, such as Northstowe, which could be designed to minimise the impact of noise on residents. Such options could be partly located in existing road corridors and so reduce the overall environmental impact.
WHAT WE WANT TO HAPPEN
We urge EWR Co. to undertake a fair assessment of, and public consultation on, northern approaches into Cambridge.
Attend Cambridge Approaches’ webinar on Saturday 19th December at 17.00. Register on our website to join. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Lobby your MP and other politicians to call on EWR Co. to carry out an assessment of northern approaches and hold a public consultation.
The publication of this post by Mill Road Bridges should not be considered an endorsement of the views of campaign groups Cambridge Approaches and CamBedRailRoad. Neither should this statement be read as one of opposition to their views. Our mission is to facilitate information and debates about all matters affecting Cambridge’s Mill Road. This post is open for (polite) comments.
For the last few days we watched more and more people concerned about the future of Mill Road bridge, our petition clearly its an evident fact that many locals wants the bridge reopened, for us is very important to know what residents and traders want. Can you please post this link on your website we will appreciate it so much.
Piero d’Angelico, Ambassador of Mill Road Traders’ Association
Click the image to visit the petition
Cambridgeshire County Council are using an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order to impose the closing of Mill Road Bridge except for buses and cyclists for up to 18 months. They are using funding provided by the Govt under the pretence of COVID and social distancing needs. Traders will be affected.
This has been done with NO consultation at all from local/county councillors. Local traders have suffered significantly over the last year with a previous bridge closure and with COVID-19, this will now have a significant impact causing many shops to close. The traders are more than happy to work with the council to find the right measures as opposed to implement now consult later. Please sign this petition to help businesses ‘stay open’ whilst a proper dialogue can be had about ‘staying safe’.
Mill Road Traders’ Association
Mill Road Bridges Web-Editor adds…
This is the latest in a number of petitions, including:
The publication of this post by Mill Road Bridges should not be considered an endorsement of the views of the Mill Road Traders’ Association, James Youd, Ruth Greene, or Rashel Mohammed, nor of the objections to the Mill Road traffic-reduction measures and associated restrictions on the railway bridge. Neither should this statement be read as one of opposition to their views.
You can participate in the Cambridgeshire County Council Mill Road Consultation, online, through clicking this link. If you, or someone you know, would like a paper copy of the Cambridgeshire County Council consultation document telephone 0345 0455212 to have paper copies posted to you.
Survey participants often complain that the questions asked do not enable them to fully express their views. If you feel that way, you could set your views out clearly in an email to policyandregulation@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.
Once again, for those without an internet connection or email account, you can communicate in the traditional way, by writing to: Policy and Regulation Team Highways Depot Stanton Way HUNTINGDON PE29 6PY
Mark your letter “Mill Road railway bridge ETRO consultation.”
Re https://t.co/mobgduYili This plan shows why Elizabeth Way bridge was built as a dual carriageway. It would also have converted/widened Brooklands Avenue & Trumpington Road into dual carriageways too. @SmarterCam@CamCycle@CBG_Connect
