Arbury Road East Residents Association – A Cambridge Community website
We have been asked to share the slides shown at our AGM on 12th of February about the residents’ parking scheme.
If, when you have had a chance to look through them, you have any questions or comments, please could you use the contact page on this website to do so?
Due to unforeseen circumstances, we have had to change the date for our AGM.
This will now be held at 7pm on Wednesday 12th of February at the Baptist Church hall.
At the meeting, we will be asking you which options, see below, you prefer for improving our street.
Please fill in the form attached and bring it with you when you come.
It is five years since the current members of ARERA’s committee started campaigning to improve conditions on our road for both residents and road users, including pedestrians.
Since then we have campaigned on a growing number of issues:
Where are we now?
In the most recent instalment of our campaigning, we had an on-street meeting last week with the Chair of the County’s Highways and Transport Committee (H&TC), Alex Beckett, and the County’s Principal Active Travel Officer, Clare Rankin.
We were also joined by Josh Grantham and Anna Wiliams from Camcycle. They worked with us on this year’s unsuccessful bid for a new zebra crossing between Milton Road lights and the North Cambridge Academy (turned down on the grounds of costs).
We discussed all the issues listed above with the H&TC Chair and Principal Active Travel Officer. They said that they understood the problems experienced on Arbury Road east but that action was difficult because:
Alex Beckett recommended that we keep making our voices heard and that we develop a staged action planfor implementing changes as and when/if money becomes available. Josh Grantham said that Camcycle was willing to work with ARERA on this.
What next?
We recommend that the ARERA committee works with residents (and businesses) in our catchment area who are interested in producing a detailed staged action plan that we can submit to the County’s H&T Committee.
We suggest that we set this process in motion at ARERA’s next AGM.
The current Chair and Secretary have already served on the committee in these posts for the 4 consecutive years allowed by ARERA’s constitution, https://arera.org.uk/about-arera/constitution/
Elections will be held at the next AGM to fill these posts.
If you would like to join the ARERA committee and/or help draw up the action plan for improvements on Arbury Road east, please let us know on info@arera.org.uk.
ARERA AGM: 29th January 2025
7pm at the Baptist Church
More details to follow in the new year
Please let your neighbours know
Arbury Road East Residents Association has, as two of its primary objectives, improving pedestrian and cyclist safety on the eastern end of Arbury Road (between Arbury Court play area and the Milton Road traffic lights).
As one way of achieving this, ARERA’s committee has explored local support for a new pedestrian crossing on Arbury Road East. This could be funded out of the County Council’s Local Highway Improvement Programme. This invites any group that represents the local community to apply for funding. The schemes are community driven and give local people the opportunity to put forward proposals for highway improvements in their area, https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/residents/travel-roads-and-parking/roads-and-pathways/improving-the-local-highway/local-highway-improvement-funding
A new crossing could improve safety for children walking via Leys Road to local primary and secondary schools, those living in Maio Road, Havenfield, Twickeham and Marfield Courts using Arbury Road shops, as well as all those who live and work on our street.
Results of survey of Arbury Road East residents and businesses
In December 2023, we asked those who live and work on Arbury Road East and its tributaries whether they would support a new zebra crossing situated between Milton Road and the Arbury Court play area, potentially funded by the County Council’s Local Highway Improvement Programme.
Two locations for a new crossing were suggested.
The committee surveyed people by distributing a paper flyer to 156 households, 5 businesses and 1 church, delivered door to door. It asked them to vote online for or against the proposal and to tell us why they voted as they did. Paper survey forms were also delivered to the 62 residential flats in Havenfield.
The survey generated a large response. Here is what those who responded told us.
A large majority support a new crossing but a small minority don’t.
47 people replied using ARERA’s online survey. More than 8 out 10 (39) of them supported the installation of a new zebra crossing. Only 8 of them did not. 9 completed forms were returned by residents of Havenfield. All bar one se supported installation of a new zebra crossing.
About two thirds of those who voted for a crossing prefer Location B.
Given this level of support, the committee is applying to the Local Highway Improvement Programme requesting installation of a new zebra crossing at Location B.
Why did people vote as they did?
The largest number of responses to the survey were received from those who live in the narrowest and most frequently congested part of Arbury Road East – post code CB4 2JB
The second largest number came from those who live in retirement flats in Havenfield – post code CB4 2JY – who could be expected to benefit most from the installation of a new zebra crossing.
People who were in favour of a new crossing were asked why they preferred the location they had chosen. In answering this question, they revealed that they had used just four assessment criteria:
Viewed against these criteria, Location B emerges as front runner.
| Table 2. The pros and cons of the two suggested locations | |
| Location A | |
| Pros | Cons |
| Proximity to destinations: shops, church, vets and schools | Too close to Milton Road traffic lights – so motorists might be tempted not to stop |
| Closest location to Havenfield retirement housing | Too dangerous |
| Link to footpath to Kirby Close | Serves least number of residents on Arbury Road |
| Safe crossing avoiding traffic junction with Milton and Leys Road | |
| Good location to deter speeding to and from Milton Road traffic lights | |
| Location B | |
| Pros | Cons |
| Closest location to Havenfield retirement housing | Too close to Milton Road traffic lights with controlled pedestrian crossing |
| Mid-point between Milton Road junction and zebra crossing at Arbury Court play area | |
| Reduces average distance anyone on Arbury Road East has to walk to reach a crossing | |
| Improved safety for school children crossing to go to Chesterton and NCA secondary schools | |
| Act as traffic calming measure to slow down vehicles on long straight stretch | |
| May stop vehicles exceeding 20 mph speed limit | |
| Good location to slow down traffic at dangerous junction with Leys Road and Havenfield | I |
| Provide alternative to dangerous zebra crossing between North Cambridge Academy and Arbury Court play area | |
| Improved visibility (fewer parked cars) at this point for pedestrians trying to cross | |
Opposition to a new zebra crossing is not related to where people live on Arbury Road East. Most opposition came from those living in CB4 2JB – the narrowest and so least safe part of the road in terms of pedestrian and cyclist safety. But this is also the post code where most people voted for a new crossing.
| Table 1. Opposition to new cross and respondents’ locations | ||
| Respondent’s post code | Number of respondents | Number opposed to new zebra crossing |
| CB4 1FY | 1 | – |
| CB4 2JB | 16 | 5 |
| CB4 2JD | 11 | 1 |
| CB4 2JE | 10 | 1 |
| CB4 2JY | 13 | – |
| CB4 2GA | 1 | – |
Those who had voted against a new zebra crossing were asked why they had done so. They had used three assessment criteria:
All those who replied to the survey were asked if they had any other comments to make. Their replies reveal that there are very divergent, unreconcilable, views held by those who live on Arbury Road East Road about the nature of the problems, if any, faced by pedestrians and cyclists using it. There are those who think there aren’t any, e,g.:
“I think Arbury Road East is already safe for pedestrians and cyclists.”
and
“Having lived on this road I think pedestrian and cycle safety is very good, with ample zebra crossings, 20mph speed limit, speed bumps and a cycle lane where it is needed near schools, shops and play areas.”
But these are outnumbered by those who think that extensive improvements need to be made. The called-for improvements include:
Given these demands, the committee of ARERA will continue to press the County Council, its Highways and Transport Committee, and the Greater Cambridge Partnership, along with our local councillors, to take the requested actions required to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety on Arbury Road East.
Arbury Road East Residents Association
AGM, Wednesday, 5th July 2023
Arbury Baptist Church Hall, 7.00-8.30 pm
From Milton Road to Arbury Camp: The History of Hurst Park and Arbury Road
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We will try to complete the formal business of the AGM in 30 minutes to allow plenty of time for Jim’s talk and any questions you may have for him.
If you do want to nominate yourself or someone else as a committee member, please use the contact link below.
And, if you have any issue you want to raise under AOB, please do so before the meeting
again using the contact below.
Arbury Road East Residents’ Association (ARERA) was set up in December 2019 to represent residents and businesses in Arbury Road (and its cul-de-sacs) between Arbury Play Area and North Cambridge Academy at the western end and the junction with Milton Road.
Its day-to-day business is managed by a small committee. Because of people moving away, there is space on the committee if you want to join us. Please email us if you’d like to or want to nominate someone else at info@arera.org.uk.
We hold a public Annual General Meeting (AGM) once a year to report on ARERA’s activities. Please come and hear what we have been doing on your behalf and let us know what you’d like us to do next.
This year, as an added attraction, our guest speaker will be Jim Smith who specialises in the local history of our area.
From Milton Road to Arbury Camp: The History of Hurst Park and Arbury Road
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Jim will present an illustrated talk on the history of our road and its relationship to the development of the surrounding area.
In 1840, Chesterton’s open fields and common land were enclosed and development spread east from Huntingdon Road towards the old Chesterton village.
By 1914, Highworth Avenue and Leys Road were laid out and housing had spread round the corner from Newman’s Cottages in Milton Road towards Leys Road. Beginning in 1927, Cambridge Estates Ltd laid out four new avenues between Milton and Arbury Roads.
The area had a history of horticulture, farming, laundering, milling, coprolite digging, brick making and, from 1934, scientific instrument making. It was home to a nurseryman, a missionary, a grocer, a notable dentist, a bankrupt confectioner, and the couple who gave their name to Cherry’s Corner.
Jim’s talk will bring to life those activities and those characters who link Hurst Park to Arbury Road.
Arbury Road East Residents Association (ARERA) welcomes the forthcoming experimental modal filter on Arbury Road, part of region-wide Government-supported measures to improve community health, prevent the spread of Covid-19, enable safe walking and cycling and reduce levels of pollution, both air and noise.
For Arbury Road we expect that there will be a temporary barrier (a ‘modal filter’) placed in a way that keeps full motor vehicle access to all properties, while stopping rat-running. The road will become safe for people walking and cycling to spread out, and pollution levels will greatly reduce. Both of those effects will help prevent transmission of the virus.
Emergency vehicles will be able to pass through if needed.
We believe that this modal filter will be placed somewhere northwest of Leys Road and southeast of the Gurdwara just before Arbury Court. The experimental traffic order is expected to run for between 6 and 18 months and will open up a wide-ranging consultation between residents and all road users about the future of the road.
For the longer term, we envision a filter that will enable emergency vehicles and drivers with blue badges to pass directly through while still stopping rat-running.
During lockdown, the amount of motor traffic went down but the average speed went up. With lockdown easing, our road is again congested. Cyclists and pedestrians are being forced into narrow spaces, and pollution levels are rising. Many people, especially children, do not feel safe cycling on the road. For years Arbury Road has suffered from pollution and dangerous road conditions, with many crashes and injuries sustained people walking and cycling here as a result of speeding and excessive motor traffic. Now, we are in danger of things getting worse than they were before.
At the end of 2019, a survey of local residents and businesses found 87% of respondents preferred a modal filter as the best way to improve safety, reduce pollution and encourage walking and cycling.
We understand that for local car drivers there may be some extension to their journey times depending exactly where the barrier is and in which direction they need to travel, but such diversions are unlikely to take more than a few minutes and will soon become part of people’s journey planning. We recognise this is an inconvenience for some people, but on the balance, we find that the importance of protecting our community’s health is much more urgent.
On Arbury Road, there are two schools, two recreation grounds and a residential home for older people – all of these facilities need to be taken into account when considering matters related to walking and cycling safety and the quality of the air we breathe. In the forthcoming consultation it is vital that all residents and users participate so that the best long term solution may be found.
We are calling for the experimental modal filter to be installed as soon as possible in order to protect the health of the people and families who live here and go to school on Arbury Road, so that we can spread out while walking and cycling, and so that the pollution levels stay low, in order to keep us safe from Covid-19.
Arbury Road East Residents Association
GCP Map of road changes- City access project for Covid-19 recovery JUNE 20
GCP Update – City access project and support for Covid-19 recovery JUNE 20
Results from the Make Arbury Road better! ARERA Survey.
The Arbury Road East Residents Association (ARERA) was officially inaugurated on 9 December 2019. ARERA aims to provide a forum for discussion of issues affecting residents and business owners on Arbury road, and its side streets, from the North Cambridge Academy school to the junction at Milton Road.
Residents/business operators have come together to discuss options as it is felt that the use of Arbury Road as a through-route/cut through is not keeping with its designated status – e.g. 20mph designation, its narrow width, multiple schools, shops, popular cyclist route, and a pedestrian zone accessing homes/schools/shops/businesses etc.
Issues discussed at the meeting included:
In this survey, we want to collect your views concerning traffic and road usage from both residents and businesses on/just off Arbury Road, with the aim of trying to develop and present ideas for improvements to the County Council and the Greater Cambridge Partnership.