Several members of the Parish Council recently attended two webinars hosted by GCP’s Cambridge South East Transport’s Local Liason Forum. These provided status updates on all schemes along the A1307 corridor through to the A11 and the proposed busway. The first webinar was most significant to Stapleford, focusing on the A1307 from Addenbrooke’s to the Wandlebury area, and the busway. A summary of this is provided below.
Changes from Addenbrooke’s to Babraham P&R
- Options to adjust the pedestrian crossing at Red Cross Lane near Addenbrooke’s roundabout are being considered in light of the permanent closure of Nightingale Avenue to vehicles from the Hills Road side. Work scheduled for Summer 2021.
- There will be a right-hand lane for turning off Hills Road into Granham’s Road. Work scheduled to start Spring 2021.
- The entire length of foot/cycleway heading towards Babraham will be upgraded. Users will be given priority over existing private accesses.
- Babraham P&R will have a further 150 spaces. The path from the P&R to Addenbrooke’s will be expanded first. Work will start very soon.
Significant changes are planned at the A1307/Haverhill Road junction
- It will not be possible to turn right out of Haverhill Road towards the A11. Vehicles will turn left and travel north to the Hinton Road roundabout before returning south along the A1307 towards the A11.
- It will not be possible to turn right out of the Gog Farm Shop onto the A1307. A sort of ‘one-way turning system’ will use the old dual carriageway further up the hill to turn right and head back towards the City.
- The A1307 will be narrowed to one lane in each direction, with a 50mph speed limit all the way to the A11. It is likely that the 50mph limit will extend into Haverhill Road; the Parish Council has requested that it extends the full length of Haverhill Road or is reduced even further.
- Pedestrians and cyclists crossing the A1307 near Haverhill Road will benefit from an extension to the length and width of the existing central island. Suitable crossing points have been proposed for horse riders.
Busway: ongoing work and project timings
- GCP will re-run its busway user forecast this summer to reflect changes in the light of Covid. A final decision on the busway will be made at the GCP Executive meeting in July 2021. The Transport and Works Act application will then be made to the Ministry of Transport in Summer 2021. A public enquiry is expected to be held in early Summer 2022, with work starting in 2023 and the busway opening in 2024.
- Over 430 responses were received to GCP’s recent environmental consultation, 118 of which were from Stapleford and Great Shelford. Some commented that the route was too far from villages to be of use; others requested more planting to offset the impact of the scheme; some believed more stops should be considered to reduce parking pressures and deliver more capacity for users. Stapleford Parish Council pointed out that there were no questions on the stretch of busway around Stapleford, which is the most sensitive part of the whole project.
- Surveying is ongoing: ecology surveys are mostly complete; bat surveys are ongoing; archaeology trial trenching is ongoing; ground investigation will start soon and run until the end of June; lighting baseline surveys will be done in February/March.
Stapleford Parish Council asked whether local buses could in theory run along the busway, coming off and travelling around villages before returning to the busway, and how this would affect the viability of the number 7 bus. GCP confirmed that it is looking at this issue at the moment. The Parish Council also drew attention to the lack of consideration given by GCP to a better off-road route, one which would not destroy greenbelt but would better connect to our villages. It highlighted an independent transport report which was positive towards an alternative railway route. Copies of the report were requested by Andrew Munro of GCP and Tony Orgee, chair of the LLF, and these will be sent shortly.
For further information:
The Parish Council’s position on CSET busway proposals is available here.
GCP’s presentations of 20th and 26th January 2021 are available here.
Full recordings of the presentations are available here.
