The summary report by the County Council’s Highways Officer who examined the feasibility of the proposed new zebra crossing for Arbury Road east has been released as an agenda paper for the Council meeting which will decide whether it should go ahead.
This meeting will now be held on the 25th of July.
Applications for funding are rated using a traffic light system.
Against all bar one of the reporting criteria the application for the zebra crossing has been rated as amber.
Against ‘deliverability’, it has been rated as red.
These ratings make it appear highly unlikely that the zebra crossing will be funded.
This is reinforced by the very high cost that the County Council has attached to providing a ‘raised’ crossing, as advised to ARERA by Camcycle.
The summary report to the committee is incorrect when it says that the introduction of a modal filter on Arbury Road east lacked support from local residents.
Our 2019-20 survey showed that this was not the case.
The summary report does, however, keep alive the hope that the County Council may yet deliver a “Future phase of cycle route improvements” on Arbury Road east.
The proposals would see residents’ parking bays on one side of the Arbury Road and double yellow lines on the other
A group of Cambridge neighbours have described plans to introduce parking measures in their area as ‘divisive’. Members of the Arbury Road East Residents’ Association (ARERA) criticised plans to introduce double yellow lines down one side of Arbury Road, with residents’ parking bays on the other.
Ian Cooper, secretary of ARERA, described the proposals of a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) for Arbury Road as ‘divisive’. He said they split the street in half by providing residents’ bays on the south side of the street but not the north – and residents on the north side will not be eligible for residents’ parking permits under the scheme.
The proposed changes to Arbury Road have been put forward by the Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) as part of the Milton Road area resident parking scheme. Mr Cooper said he had asked the GCP why the two sides of the street would be treated differently and was told there was “inadequate on-street parking capacity”.
Simon Crisp said he would need to get the kerb lowered in front of his house to be able to park in front of his house. He said he would have to pay for the kerb to be lowered – when he began to research this, he found he would have to pay to make an application to the council for permission before paying around £1,200 for the work to be done.
Maggie Fernie said she only experiences issues with parking on Arbury Road on Saturday mornings. She said she is concerned about where tradesmen would park on the street with restrictions in place: “How is anybody going to get any work done?”
Mrs Lund added that the scheme might push parking onto adjoining streets like Maio Road that are not included in the proposals. She said this would “cause a lot of ill feeling”.
Lynne Miles, Director of City Access at the GCP, said: “The proposed scheme would see a combination of measures introduced to improve parking and road safety along a busy route in and out of the city. These measures would include new residents’ parking bays, pay & display and/or limited waiting bays, and double yellow lines in places deemed unsafe for people to park. The majority of residents were in support of the scheme as consulted upon.”
A consultation on the Milton Road area resident parking scheme, which includes proposed changes to Arbury Road, was carried out in 2022. Ms Miles added: “The scheme would help to provide dedicated parking for residents who currently find it difficult to park within a reasonable distance of their home, while also continuing to support the needs of businesses and community facilities in the Milton Road area.
“All schemes of this nature have to balance tricky issues about where to draw boundaries and how to accommodate differing needs to minimise any displacement effects to neighbouring areas. Cambridgeshire County Council, the highways authority, is expected to take the final decision on the proposed residents parking scheme – which has been subject to public consultation – in due course and if the decision is to go ahead, then a six-month review is recommended to consider whether the scheme needs to be amended.”