Cambridgeshire Highways will be resurfacing Long Road between the Hills Road Junction and Long Road VI Form College from Tuesday 9th August 2011 to Friday 12th August. The work will be carried out during the daytime from 09:30hrs to 15:30hrs. Traffic will be controlled by temporary traffic lights.

If you have any queries regarding the work please contact Jonathan Clarke, Area Maintenance Engineer for this area either on email (Jonathan.Clarke@cambridgeshire.gov.uk) or telephone Cambridgeshire Highways on 0345 045 5212.

Amanda and 20mph sign

There was a lively discussion on the Queen Edith’s 20mph trial at the Cambridge South Area meeting on Monday night. The meeting was held at the Cherry Hinton Village Centre for the first time, and was well attended, with many people there specially for either the 20mph item on the agenda or the policing session.

Mr Richard Preston from Cambridgeshire County Council Highways Dept was there to report and listen, and at my request, the police stayed on for the discussion.

Despite disappointing speed tests showing that drivers have not changed their behaviour much, here was general support for continuing with the lower 20mph limit, but there were also emphatic demands for two things that would make it work much better:

• better signage (painted areas on the road or flashing signs)
• police enforcement

There was a request for the lower limit to be extended to the whole of the estate, a change which councillors are happy to take on board. We limited it to Gunhild, Godwin and Wulfstan Ways initially, on the grounds that these roads had schools – but the point of a trial is that you can learn from it and make changes.

Mr James Woodburn of the Cambridge Cycling Campaign presented some very useful evidence, explaining how Portsmouth had brought in 20mph speed limits across 94% of the overall road length. They had taken a much more holistic approach, getting police buy-in from the beginning, making signage really prominent and giving much more information about the trial before it began. The result had been very good adherence to the lower speeds.

We asked Inspector Kerridge what enforcement there had been and what the police could offer us for the future. He didn’t give us a direct answer about what enforcement there had been (I suspect none) but explained the police had needed to do some research first about the viability of enforcing a 20mph limit. But he did say: ‘Can we enforce 20? Yes we can!’ and explained the approach he would like to take (talking to people and advising them if they were driving at over 20mph, following that up with a letter, before actually ticketing), while making it clear that the police would not enforce every 20mph limit without local requests to do so in areas where infringement was a particular problem. So: halfway there.

Mr Preston from the County Council told us more signage would cost about £500 (the cost of a painting gang) and that interactive signs could cost up to £5,000. The County had initially been trying not to clutter the area up with too many signs and taken a low-key approach – but in v iew of our comments would look favourably on local requests for more signs … if funding could be found. That may mean we have to fund them from Area Committee funds.

Mr Preston will report back on what we said on Monday to a joint county/city transport committee, and it is expected that the lower limit will remain. We evidently have more work to do on securing the better signage and police enforcement, but Monday’s meeting was a constructive sharing of what’s needed to improve the scheme. Thanks to all those who came along to speak, especially Claire from Godwin Way and Jim and James the Cycling Campaign, and to everyone who sent in surveys, or made comments on the Queen Edith’s  Facebook page.

Oh … our trial appear to have made the news!

BBC News

BBC News (Cambridgeshire)

DID YOU KNOW that approximately 2,500 bikes are stolen in Cambridge every year? So welcome to a helpful initiative to safeguard Cambridge bikes.

ParkThatBike is a social enterprise specialising in cycle parking. In their own words, they’re a ‘specialist consultancy working with UK local authorities to improve the nation’s cycle parking’. They are offering free cycle stands to local voluntary sector groups, charities, social enterprises and small businesses. Each stand holds two bikes neatly and securely.

SO: if you visit any small businesses, community groups, shops, pubs, offices, surgeries or churches and worry that your bike might disappear while you’re inside because there’s no cycle rack to attach it to, get in touch with the Bikerack Benefactors at www.parkthatbike.com, or phone 01594 for an application form.

The Cambridge offer is valid until March 2012.

County Council Highways officers are coming to the next South Cambridge Area meeting on 11th July to hear what we think of the 20mph speed limit trial in the Wulfstan Way area. Officers would like to make it permanent. The scheme has been running for just over a year and covers Wulfstan Way, Gunhild Way and Godwin Way, and the three cul-de-sacs in that area.

The Wulfstan Way area was chosen because it has a lot of of pedestrians and cyclists, and several community facilities – churches, schools, doctors’ surgeries and shops.

The police will be at the meeting too, so there will be a good opportunity to evaluate the trial – and to ask for more support from them in terms of enforcement. I have also had suggestions that the lower speed limit should be more clearly signed, a very valid point. Clearly those two things need to work together.

The meeting takes place on Monday 11th July at the Cherry Hinton Village Centre, starting at 7.30 p.m. Or if you cannot attend, please comment here or on the Queen Edith’s Facebook page.

I would also welcome views on other streets which would benefit from 20mph zones, as the Government has just relaxed the rules, meaning local people can get 20mph speed limits put in with much less bureaucracy and at lower cost.

Cambridgeshire County Council has told is it is about to start resurfacing some roads in this area. Here are the details, so you can try to find alternative routes:

Mowbray Road between Holbrook Rd and the QE Way roundabout: this Thursday, 14th April

Fendon Road between the two roundabouts: this Friday, 15th April and Sunday 17th April

Babraham Road: extensive patching from the Audi garage to the hospital: Mon 18th-Thur 21st April (approx)

All traffic will be controlled by stop and go signs.

Yellow line

Sedley Taylor Road and neighbouring Luard Road has had a traffic calming scheme for a year and a half, and it has dramatically reduced rat-running and speeding which used to be a constant problem. Yellow lines reduce parking too.

However, parking is still a problem on Saturdays. Like the apple a day keeping the doctor away, the yellow lines keep hospital and college commuters away Monday to Friday, but on Saturday, builders park in the street, often blocking drives or parking so as to make it awkward for people to get out of their drives.

I have taken advice from the County Council Highways Department and am advised that the yellow lines could be changed to ban parking from Monday to Saturday. New signs would cost a few hundred pounds; advertising the change in the local paper, as the law requires, would cost about £1,000.

Worth it? Let me know.

18 years of dropped kerbs!

Could I have a dropped kerb on Blinco Grove, please?

That was the very first thing I was asked to do as a new councillor back in 1994 when I was first elected. The request came from a lady who used a wheelchair and needed a dropped kerb near her home, (‘mobility crossing’) in order to cross the road. I am sorry to say that I had a forest of bureaucracy to fight through before we got the dropped kerb. Nevertheless, it is a request that comes up time and time again.

I was pleased to help, but it was only when I tried to cross East Road wheeling a friend’s toddler in a pushchair that it really came home to me how difficult it is to do a simple thing like crossing the road if the varying levels of kerb and road mean your wheels don’t work. At the time, I drew a deep breath and heaved up the pushchair  – and thought about how much harder this would be for someone in a wheelchair.

Over the years I’ve been a councillor there have been many new dropped kerbs in Queen Edith’s. Although the public highways are really the responsibility of the County Council, the City Council has funded many dropped kerbs through its environmental improvements programmes. I think the most recent one round here is on Hills Road, to allow easier access from the hospital to Nightingale Avenue.

If you have ideas for new ones in the south of the city, please tell me or one of the other councillors. as there is a possibility we may have funding for a few new ones.

Cambridgeshire County Council has introduced a nifty new system for reporting road and pavement problems on its website. Not only does it allow you to track the fault and see when it will be repaired, but it also lets you pinpoint the problem on an interactive map.

The picture shows Queen Edith’s — as near as I could get to the ward boundaries anyway — and as you can see, many people have been mapping problems already.

Two of the little red dots are my pothole complaints this week! One recidivist pair of twin potholes on Rock Road, and a ‘monster’ (1) pothole on Cherry Hinton Road just before the traffic lights.

So, to sum up, the Highways Reporting Project allows people to:

• Report a fault using a web-based mapping system to ensure the exact location is identified and notified to repair teams
• Check on line to see if the fault has already been reported
• Go on-line to check progress on repair work

The online service is available at  www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/transport/highwaysfault. In addition, you can report faults by telephone on 0345 045 5212.

(1) a wheel or tyre-eating monster, that I reported — but ‘monster’ was the word the Highways Department used, I promise you…

Do you travel down Cherry Hinton Road?

A pedestrian was hit by a red BMW at about 17:30 on Monday 8th November as she was crossing Cherry Hinton Road, and very seriously injured. The woman concerned is in her sixties, about 5′ 3″ tall , with short brown hair.  She was wearing a blue and black jacket and jeans on the day of the accident.

If you witnessed this accident or were in the area (near the Cherry Hinton Road/ Wulfstan Way junction) on the 18th November, please get in touch with the police.

Police would also like to talk to the driver of a white Ford Escort van with a skirt kit that was in the vicinity at the time. The van was not involved in the collision but the driver’s recollections may be helpful.