Even More Houses on Arbury Park

Buried away in the opaquely titled Housing Shortfall Report of South Cambridgeshire District Council is a plan to add even more housing to the Arbury Park development.

There are many reasons why this is a bad plan.

The sites are right next to the A14 and neglect the well known impact of the road on the residents. Noise pollution is known to cause blood pressure problems, and this is in addition to air quality issues. The solution is to keep the current noise barriers which reflect the problem onto the residents of Impington and make an unwelcoming, ugly and forbidding entry to the city.
The buildings already planned for the site will already stretch King's Hedges Road and Northfield Avenue to breaking point.

The lost of community resources and employment space will make Arbury Park a much less pleasant place to live and less sustainable. Indeed they acknowledge that there is no space for reasonable open space and propose taking development money to be spent elsewhere in the district: on the other side of the A14.

Arbury Park residents are already dismayed at the lack of community facilities for this new development which has also left them with unfinished pavements, no street signs and lighting and parcels of land being developed separately without a cohesive Master Plan.

Everyone believes this area will become the responsibility of Cambridge City Council following a future boundary review between South Cambs and Cambridge City, and given other sites they identify are mostly in North West Cambridge except for two smaller sites, it would appear that the attitude of South Cambs is to put all the housing on this side of the A14 and then hope the City picks up the pieces.

Recently Cambridge City Council congratulated South Cambs DC on doing a review of Arbury Park and the lessons to be learned from mistakes on the development, including the lack of a quality urban design. Too soon it seems.

I will be opposing this proposal, as will the rest of the City Liberal Democrats!

Milton Road Trees: (Partial) Success!

I've just received some really good news from the County Council.

In response to a question from Lib Dem County Cllr Kevin Wilkins about the trees Cllr Matt Bradney, "the Cabinet Member for Growth and Infrastructure" said:

In the case of Milton Road, there are some longer-term issues over future
investment in bus priority and cycleways that could have implications for
tree planting locations. Unfortunately, the extent of these implications
on the section of Milton Road approaching the King’s Hedges Road may not be
fully understood until guided bus operations commence next year and further
monitoring work on bus delays has been undertaken.

However, in light of the recent feedback from the Area Joint Committee and
following further discussions with the Director of Highways and Access, I
have asked that officers meet with the City Council’s Arboricultural Team
to approve replanting proposals. It should be possible to agree proposals
for the majority of the route but, as indicated above, there may be a need
for replanting near to the King’s Hedges Road junction, in particular, to
be held over at this time.

So this is a partial victory: we can get trees replanted on some of Milton Road, and we will continue to fight for the trees near King's Hedges Road.

The County Council have been forced by your pressure to come a long way from their position last summer which was that "we are not replacing trees" because of the possible impact that the "Long Term Transport Strategy ... may have on Milton Road" they decided to "hold off new planting in case it is not consistent with those emerging plans." (This was in an email dated 20 June 2007.)

When this was published Mike Pitt asked for a rethink on on 18 April 2008 in an email to Cllr Mac McGuire. Despite resending it he is still awaiting a reply!

Hopefully we will see replanting soon.

Planning application at Colleges Nursery

Colleges Nursery on Campkin Road has put in a planning application to replace its existing fence.

The reference number for the application is 08/1231/FUL, and more information can be found (as ever) on the development control pages of the City Council website.

Temporary Bus Stop Put In!

A victory for your local LibDem team thanks to the help of the Cambridge News.

Following the Cambridge News taking up the story of my attempts to get the County to agree to a temporary bus stop things happened fast: The County gave approval to Stagecoach the very next week, and when I checked at the weekend I found we have got a temporary bus stop. This after the County had dragged their feet and not even replied to Stagecoach's emails to them.

The County Council should have made arrangements for such a stop before closing the one on Milton Road for the Guided Busway works: another example of the County Council's Tories from Fenland not caring about the impact on the city.

However a big thank you to the Cambridge News for helping us out by drawing attention to the problem.

The new bus stop is about 20 yards down Greenend Road, just past the Co-Op.

Retrospective planning app in Ramsden Square

A retrospective application for a "replacement car port" has been made by a house on Ramsden Square. The application number is 08/1124/FUL.

As ever more details can be found at the development control pages of the City Council website.

Footway works in St Kilda Ave and Lavender Rd

I've just had an email telling me that there will be

thin coat overlay works to the footways in Saint Kilda Avenue and in
Lavender Road in Kings Hedges Ward, starting on the 22/09/2008, and lasting 1 week. These dates are subject to the weather.

Hopefully this will improve the quality of the footpaths as they need it. Let us know if the works cause any problems!

Recycling centres

Good news from City Homes. In an attempt to increase the recycling rates the Housing Officers are making a big effort to find suitable sites for recycling depots for flats in the ward.

The first consultations have taken place and others have recently started.

If you get a letter asking your opinion do let us know. I am sure most people would welcome more recycling, and if you would respond to say so.

At the moment I have letters for Albemarle and Nicholson Ways, and have seen various sites in Minerva Way.

Slow Down In King's Hedges

The issue of cars speeding in King's Hedges has arisen again. This time I'm trying to find what can be done in Northfield Avenue.

I have already asked (back in April) for a 20 limit on the road. Other towns and cities have found that 20 limits do slow people down even without road humps. Yet the County policy is that you can only have a 20 limit if people are already going slower than 20!

This is a decision and a policy that ought to be decided locally. Not by the Conservative County Councillors from March.

I'll keep plugging away to see what we can do.

Clegg at Conference

This is something of an experiment: a video on the blog.





I feel that Clegg's speach in Bournemouth has not been fully reported, the emphasis he placed on fair tax has been simplified to just tax cuts. See for yourself what Clegg said by viewing this video or going to view it on YouTube.

BBC's newsnight did an interesting piece on the reaction of floating voters to the three party leaders. It can be viewed online at the BBC Newsnight website.

Temporary bus stop agreed

I've just heard that the County Council will allow and Stagecoach have agreed to put up
a temporary bus stop at the end of Greenend Road for those affected by the Milton Road
Guided Bus works meaning the loss of the Lovell Road bus stop.

More to follow: but thanks to the Cambridge News for helping me publicise this last
week.

Planning applications in Turpyn Court and Milton Rd

An application has been made for a single storey extension to a property in Turpyn Court. The reference number is 08/1109/FUL.

More information can be obtained from development control on the City Council website.

There is also an application (08/1083/FUL) in Milton Road for the erection of 6 one bedroomed apartments. This is just outside the ward at 127 Milton Road.