Cycling UK has been circulated their latest campaign to it’s members. As we understand it, you don’t have to be a member to support their campaign. Some members have been modifying the response along the following lines:
I have in mind, could this available money help fund a bridge over the A505 Royston bypass into Hertfordshire for cyclists, pedestrians and mobility scooters?
Could we suggest that members of the A10 CCC, in their own words, to do the same.
The email is as follows (clicking show us the money for cycling takes you to their response page)
The Government has asked councils throughout England to come up with Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIPs), to help make cycling and walking the natural choice for shorter journeys and to make our streets and towns safer, healthier and better places to travel through, visit, work and shop. Places where we’d all rather be.
However, while many councils are now developing these plans, the Government haven’t put forward any specific funding to help cash-strapped authorities make these plans a reality.
Without this financial support, there’s every chance your council will spend valuable time and money developing detailed cycling and walking plans which will just sit on a shelf gathering dust.
Given that the Government has already admitted that it’s failing to meet its objective to double cycling by 2025, we need your MP and council leader to demand that Government show us the money for cycling.
Over a hundred MPs have already written to demand this vital funding, but you can help usramp up the pressure by emailing your MP and council leader.
Just two minutes of your time to take action could help transform where you live, shop, walk and work.
Thanks to Justin Wilmott and the team at Herts and Cambs Grounds Maintemance for carrying out tree lifting (completed last week) and hedge cutting (more to come this week). Thanks also to AstraZeneca for providing the financial support to make this extra maintenance possible.
County Highways vegetation maintenance is limited to two grass cuts per year – this is due to collapsing budgets. Herts and Cambs Grounds Maintenance will be doing extra grass cuts, in addition to tree and hedge work.
Gone are the canopies of overhanging trees and bramble stems threatening to take an eye out. Most impressively, there’s no debris left on the path after works completed.
Together with the Community Sweeper Volunteers the A10 path is in really great hands.
At a recent Hertfordshire County Council Meeting Rod Taylor and John Meadows of Royston recently asked Hertfordshire County Councillors the following Public Questions regarding the provision of a safe Cycle and Pedestrian bridge over the A505 at Royston. They also asked questions regarding future Cycle Route provision in and around Royston.
They were both pleased to receive positive and supportive answers from both Councillor D. A. Ashley and Councillor P.Bibby.
The draft of these question and respective answers were as follows:
Extracted from the Minutes of the Meeting of the County Council held at County Hall, Hertford on Tuesday 27 November 2018. There were 71 Hertfordshire County Councillors present at the meeting.
4.
HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL PUBLIC QUESTIONS – STANDING ORDER 8 (10)
4A.
QUESTION FROM MR J MEADOWS
4.1
Mr J Meadows, a resident of Royston, asked D A Ashley, Executive Member for Growth, Infrastructure, Planning and the Economy, the following question:-
“I hope that Councillor Ashley is aware of proposals from Cambridgeshire County Council and the Greater Cambridge Partnership to construct a safe cycle route between Royston in Hertfordshire and Melbourn in Cambridgeshire, which includes a bridge over the A505 Royston bypass into Hertfordshire for cyclists, pedestrians and mobility scooters. Could he please indicate what commitments have been made to this project by Hertfordshire County Council in terms of officer time for feasibility studies and design work, and future funding for construction and maintenance of this bridge?”
4.2
D A Ashley, Executive Member for Growth, Infrastructure, Planning and the Economy replied:-
“Before I answer the question, can I thank Mr Meadows for actually asking the question which I think is quite timely and can I also thank Councillor Fiona Hill who’s spoken to me on several occasions since I took over this portfolio and her efforts behind the scenes to try and bring this project to fruition. The A10/A505 Royston cycle and pedestrian bridge is a project that both Hertfordshire County Council and Cambridgeshire County Council would like to see delivered. It is hoped the proposed cycle bridge project over the A505 will act as a catalyst for further works in the town, particularly in relation to improved links to the industrial area. A detailed feasibility study by Hertfordshire County Council has been undertaken but further design work and public consultation would need to be carried out before this scheme could be put in a programme for delivery. Hertfordshire County Council has agreed in principle to maintain the bridge once it’s been built; however, Hertfordshire would also want to ensure that the bridge be connected into a network which would mean construction of the A10 path at least between Melbourn and the A505 Royston and improvements to the network in Royston itself. A bid is to be submitted to Herts LEP [Local Enterprise Partnership] by Hertfordshire County Council with a commitment of £625,000 from future LTP [Local Transport Plan] funding allocations and existing section 106 contributions, seeking match funding from the LEP towards the project development and delivery stages. It was originally expected that Cambridgeshire would then commit funding to a level to enable delivery, however, recent discussions in the last few weeks with Cambridgeshire combined authority, have raised doubts over their commitment of funding support for the project in its entirety. Although the bridge element is critical to Cambridgeshire’s Melbourn to Royston greenway project being realised, further discussions are to take place in the near future to see if an agreement can be reached in respect to fund delivery arrangements and, just to say, the project does remain an aspiration for us and continued funding will be sought via developer contributions and other funding opportunities as they may arise. Now having said all of that, Councillor Hill has asked me to arrange a meeting between myself and opposite numbers in Cambridge County Council and Officers from this County Council to see if we can actually jump start this and find a way forward so we have got some idea and some commitment from all parties involved here to see if we can move this forward. I’m very happy to organise that meeting.”
4.3
Mr J Meadows thanked D A Ashley, Executive Member for Growth, Infrastructure, Planning and the Economy, for his comprehensive answer and the commitment given to progressing the project and confirmed that he did not have a supplementary question.
4B.
QUESTION FROM MR R TAYLOR
4.4
Mr R Taylor, a resident from Royston, asked P Bibby, Executive Member for Highways and Environment, the following question:- “Is Councillor Bibby aware of the 2010 Royston Urban Transport Plan and if he is, now that the town has a underpass for pedestrians and cyclists under the railway, can he please indicate what plans there are to develop a cycle network within the town as indicated in Section 6.0 Local Targets and Improvements, and specifically in Section 6.2 Table 6.1 ref 3 and Section 7.8 Table 7.3 CM05 which appertains to cyclists?”.
4.5
P Bibby, Executive Member for Highways and Environment replied:-
“Thank you for your question Mr Taylor, delighted to answer.
Yes, I am aware of the Plan and yes, works have already been carried out on the cycle network in Royston including improvements to the cycle route along Burns Road and the introduction of a Toucan crossing on Old North Road. The County Council’s major product group working with funding partners Sustrans through a national lottery Connect Two funding package has provided several network links including the Royston Rail Crossing referred to. Many of the connecting cycle links were delivered through partnership working with North Herts District Council and Settle. This plan obviously compliments our revised local transport plan [LTP4 for short] so it’s very timely and there are other emerging plans from around the County of a similar nature. I would encourage continued dialogue from all districts to the County Council or between the County Council, all districts and developers to improve the network. It’s important that developers are made aware of our infrastructure requirements so that developments are designed properly and section 106 contributions are sought as an important source of funding.”
4.6
Mr R Taylor asked P Bibby, Executive Member for Highways and Environment, the following supplementary question:- “As 2018 is Hertfordshire’s year of physical activity, is he aware of the work of Sustrans, who are responsible for building the National Cycle Network and, as such, this will mean that once the bridge is in place at Royston, it will lead the way for a dedicated London to Cambridge bike route which will go via Hertford and Royston?”
4.7
P Bibby, Executive Member for Highways and Environment replied:-
“I must confess, I wasn’t aware of that particular issue in 2018 with Sustrans but I will suggest that’s good news and it shows that we are all moving forwards to actually look at your plan and try and develop it as much as we can. My colleague in front of me is all about Prevention and Health and Wellbeing so I’m sure he will be very interested in that project. Thank you.”
Robert StanfordI’m fully supportive of the A10 corridor and given what has already been achieved it would be a shame to “spoil the ship for a hapeth of tar”. I live in Bassingbourn and cycling along the A1198 feels very risky and of course there is the same issue of …See more
We’ve had the following message from Cambs CC. Note the temp need to close the existing path and the Trumpington meadows diversion.
I just wanted to let you know about some works taking place on the A10 Cambridge Road, Hauxton. For some time we have had limited funds available to carry out improvements on the footway between Hauxton Mill and the M11. It has been decided to resurface the existing footway here. This will help establish the footways full width and create a smooth consistent surface.
We have an opportunity to carry out these works next week. Our surfacing contractor has identified a space in their programme and we think it is good to seize this opportunity to get the works completed. Therefore the work will take place Wednesday 21st and Thursday 22ndNovember between 09:30 and 15:30.
Traffic management will be required at times on the carriageway via two way temporary traffic lights to allow for delivery of materials and movement of plant and machinery. The footway will also need to be closed during the hours of work. There is the alternative footpath through the fields to Trumpington Meadows. Or users should approach works and wait to be directed through by traffic management personnel or signage. Outside of the working hours the carriageway and footway will be open as normal.
We welcome views. If you plan to use the park and ride we’d love your input. In recent developments, there has been very poor provision for people passing through and not wishing to use the re-modelled areas (as anybody passing Cambridge station for North to South knows), so we’d also like to hear from you if you have no intention of using the park and ride.
With this in mind, we are having a meeting to formulate a response on November 28, 7:30PM, at the Spitfire Table, Shepreth Plough.
The winner of the Build Us A Bridge competition is Iris Bostanci, aged 7, and a pupil at Meldreth Primary School.
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We particularly enjoyed the use of socks to represent the path and animals to represent users.
Our young ambassadors have really been doing a great job for us, with three attending a Greater Cambridge Partnership Board meeting recently, fielding questions. Read about their involvement in the meeting, published by The Royston Crow here.
