Road safety, verges, roundabout costs, borrowing for the A14, and rising traffic

Some pretty straightforward decisions at Cambridgeshire County Council’s Highways & Transport Committee today – and some lively discussions too.

Straightforward were the decisions to award a contract for management of the construction contract for the King’s Dyke crossing; and the revised funding agreement and compulsory purchase order arrangements for the Wisbech Access Strategy.

Road safety strategy

A new road safety strategy was then proposed, to replace the one which came to an end this year. Obviously you can’t vote against road safety – who would? – but although I voted for the principles, I expressed my concerns about the new strategy itself and abstained on it.

• The previous strategy undertook to cut the numbers of people killed and seriously injured on Cambridgeshire’s roads by 40 per cent. It missed that target quite significantly. That’s not to cast blame, but to face facts. I would have welcomed a strategy that squared up to that, explored openly why the previous strategy hadn’t succeeded, and explained what had changed that would result in success this time.
• Residents and parish councils in my own area between Ely and Chatteris regularly ask the County Council for action to improve road safety at the junctions along the A142 – and are always told it’s not possible. Increasingly the County Council is expecting parish councils to take responsibility (and raise money!) for road safety works, whereas in reality parish council powers to influence significant road safety issues are somewhat limited.
• A strategy relies on funding for its implementation. It’s now a couple of years since the report on the outcome of the road safety study of the A142 between Ely and Chatteris. It recommended a package of measures costing over £5M. A few of these have been carried out, and a few more to follow, and I know council officers are valiantly trying to pull together what money they can for the rest. But all this requires the political will to fund it.

Verge management

An item proposing a new strategy for managing roadside verges was unexpectedly withdrawn, after a resident submitted a comment pointing out that although it claimed to align with best practice recommended by national charity Plantlife, it didn’t actually appear to do so. Oops.

Cambridge roundabout

My colleague Cllr Amanda Taylor finally managed to get this report on the Fendon Road roundabout in Cambridge to the committee, after pressing for it for months in view of the escalating costs. The proposal to reallocate money from elsewhere in the programme to complete the roundabout was agreed. My colleague Cllr Ian Manning proposed that the committee receive a report to a future meeting on the work officers are doing to achieve better cost and time estimates for projects in future, but this was defeated.

A14 borrowing

The committee received a financial update, including the note that the council would have to borrow to pay the money it had agreed to contribute to the works to the A14. When times were good, the council offered to pay £25M towards these works, using £1M a year from the grant it received for highway improvements. At the time, that grant from Government was around £10M a year. Now, however, it’s been slashed to around £3M a year, so the council is having to borrow to pay this promise, rather than see one-third of its grant vanish – not a very good position to be in.

Traffic floods back

Finally, the committee received a report on the impact of COVID on highways and transport. I commented on the dismal news that, even with many people still furloughed, and many services and amenities still shut, traffic on our roads is already back at 70 per cent of what it was before COVID. This is very worrying news for those who had hoped to retain at least some of the benefits of better air quality, quieter streets, and an improved natural environment. The public agencies really need to redouble their efforts to promote active travel, and to make public transport safe and attractive.