Today I joined a number of other councillors for a briefing on a new report which suggests dualling the A10 between Ely and Cambridge, as part of a scheme costing half a billion pounds.

The study, commissioned by the Greater Cambridge Partnership and published today, proposes building a new park and ride, moving Waterbeach railway station, and creating a segregated public transport route between Waterbeach and Cambridge.

The move comes in response to proposals for up to 10,000 new homes at Waterbeach, and development at Milton sewage works and Cambridge Science Park.

No specifics have yet been put forward, as only preliminary desktop modelling has been done. The report will be considered by the Greater Cambridge Partnership Joint Assembly on 18 January, by the Partnership’s Executive Board and the County Council’s Economy & Environment Committee on 8 February, and by the Combined Authority on 28 February. Public consultation will take place during the summer.

It’s likely to be the end of 2019 before this project moves on to planning application stage. That’s nearly 18 months after traffic starts pouring on to the A10 from the Ely bypass.

In July last year I seconded a motion to the County Council calling for a small study on the impact of improving the junctions between Littleport and the A14, to improve traffic flow at the junctions in the short to medium term. Conservative councillors butchered the motion to remove the call for short-term action – a short-sighted move on their part. If they’d agreed, we would now be much further forward to seeing these junctions being improved and better able to withstand the flow of traffic.