Members ask questions at Hertfordshire County Council meeting
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.”
Comments
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Paul Hodges I would cycle shepreth to royston a lot more was it not for the A10. Nearly got killed on the A505 roundabout previously.Delete or hide this
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Robert Stanford I’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 moreDelete or hide this
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Mike Prior-Jones Thanks John and Rod – we’ve clearly got onto Hertfordshire’s agenda.Delete or hide this
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Hauxton path leading to the M11 roundabout resuracing.
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.
Trumpington Park and Ride proposals
There are plans and consultations currently underway regarding the expansion of Trumpington Park and Ride. The details of the consultation and proposal can be viewed or downloaded here.
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.
Build us a Bridge competition winner and a huge thank you to our young ambassadors.
The winner of the Build Us A Bridge competition is Iris Bostanci, aged 7, and a pupil at Meldreth Primary School.
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.
Next meeting and documents Oct 2018
Our next meeting is on 17 October, 7:30PM, upstairs at The Plough, Shepreth.
The agenda and previous minutes can be viewed downloaded here.
A10 Corridor Cycling Campaign: August 2018 Update
Here’s an update for you on what the Campaign has been doing in the last few weeks. There’s plenty going on at the moment, and there are a few areas that we’d like some help with, so do read on:
Melbourn-to-Royston path and bridge
We are continuing to work “behind the scenes” to secure funding for a new path between Melbourn and Royston, to include a bridge over the A505. This project will cost around £2.5m and we are putting together a package of funding with contributions from lots of different agencies. So far we already have money committed by Royston Town Council and AstraZeneca, and we’re pleased to announce that North Hertfordshire District Council have confirmed a contribution of £55,686. That brings the total committed so far to just over £115,000 out of the £2.5m required for the construction. We also have a longstanding commitment from Hertfordshire County Council to pay for the maintenance of the bridge once it has been built.
However, we are still working on persuading various local authorities to fund the majority of the cost of the path and bridge, and have been talking to several of them:
Firstly, we learned this week that funding for the project will be discussed at the next round of Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) meetings in the autumn. GCP consists of three local authorities (Cambridgeshire County Council, South Cambs District Council and Cambridge City Council) working together to decide how best to spend a large grant from central government. They have previously funded the A10 path from Melbourn to Shepreth, and we have high hopes for them contributing a substantial proportion of the cost of the Melbourn-to-Royston project. In order to help make our case at their Assembly and Executive Board meetings, staff and pupils from Melbourn Village College and Meldreth Primary School will be coming to the meetings to explain why this project is so important for young people in the area. We’re really grateful for their support.
Secondly, Mike (vice-chair) and Lloyd Anderson from AstraZeneca held a meeting with the Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, James Palmer, in Ely last week. The Mayor has a lot of influence over local transport planning, and so we’re very pleased to report that he endorsed the Melbourn-to-Royston scheme as a good idea and made some suggestions as to how it could be funded. This included applying for funding from the Local Enterprise Partnership – another regional agency with a budget to fund projects that promote economic growth. If you work in a business that could expand its operations if the cycle route was built – for example, if that allowed new buildings to be built on land currently used for car parking – please reply to this email and let us know. This sort of information will help us make the case for the project in terms of business growth, which is a very persuasive argument with all the local authorities.
Build Us a Bridge competition
A reminder about our Build Us A Bridge Competition – a bit of fun for the summer holidays. Build a bridge (large or small) and send us a picture, and you might win a prize! Full details are on the website here: https://a10corridorcycle.com/build-us-a-bridge/
We have sent details of the competition to a number of Royston schools and businesses. Charlotte Van Bochoven also presented it to a Foxton Primary School assembly – thank you Charlotte!
If you are involved in a youth group of any age that will meet during the summer holidays, please could you send them details of our competition? Thank you!
Cutting back the vegetation
As we mentioned in the last update, difficulties with the contractor who was supposed to be maintaining the path have led to the path becoming overgrown with vegetation. We’re pleased to say that a new contractor has been appointed, who is very keen and clued-up, and works should begin soon. Their first priority will be to cut back the hedges and overhanging branches, and the works will include sweeping up the resulting debris so that people don’t get punctures.
AstraZeneca are kindly funding this maintenance, since Cambridgeshire County Council’s funding extends to only cutting the grass verge twice a year. Susan is coordinating the maintenance teams so that works are done at sensible times of the year.
In the meantime, our dedicated Community Sweeper volunteers have been giving up their weekends to drive the sweeper trucks and have swept up the path up through Harston. Their plans for autumn include post-hedge cut sweeps to ensure thorns are removed from the path, as the wind always disperses cuttings. Once again a big thanks to Rod, Tim, Richard and Stuart for doing this.
A few minor path improvements are coming
At the north end of Harston, Cambridgeshire’s Highways team are going to “side out” the path: this means removing debris and vegetation that has grown over the edges of the path. The works should restore the path to its full usable width. This is going to be done on the section from the London Road junction in Harston (by the former Vujon restaurant) up to Hauxton Mill. This is a section that is very narrow and so every extra centimetre of width helps.
In the same area, a small pot of funding has been found (£30k) to resurface the existing narrow path between Hauxton Mill and the M11 roundabout. As much work will be done as the funding allows – so they may not be able to do the whole path.
We’re in conversation with Cambridgeshire County Highways about the possibility of siding out the existing Royston-Melbourn path and hope that this may be done soon. No doubt this would reveal more pot holes, shining the spotlight ever more acutely on the need for a new path.
Trumpington Park and Ride
Following on from Mike’s presentation at the July campaign meeting, Mike and Susan met with GCP and planning officers to discuss options for providing a sensible cycle route through the Park and Ride site once an extension to the car park is completed. Unfortunately, the plans are now too far advanced for any significant changes at this stage, although the project officer did take a number of minor changes on board.
Royston councillors
A campaign committee meeting was held earlier this week together with a large number of Royston Town, District and County Councillors, demonstrating very strong support for Royston, across all parties and neighbourhoods.
Haslingfield Greenway consultation
Just a reminder that the Haslingfield Greenway consultation is still open for contributions and closes on Monday 20th August. Of particular interest to us is the proposal to upgrade an existing bridleway between Haslingfield and the A10 at Hauxton to be suitable for ordinary bikes (rather than mountain bikes). Camcycle have written a detailed response to the Greenway consultations here, which is well worth reading. https://www.camcycle.org.uk/blog/2018/08/barton-and-haslingfield-greenway-consultations/ The consultation itself is online here. https://consultcambs.uk.engagementhq.com/greenways
Next meeting date
Our next meeting takes place on October 17th, at a venue to be announced.