Issue - meetings

The Committee received a report from the Senior Engineer requesting that the Committee:

       i.          Determine whether to proceed with the EIP proposal to restrict the movement of traffic through Canterbury Street, or re-allocate the funding agreed (circa £12,250) to other potential projects.

     ii.          Determine whether to re-allocate the EIP funding agreed for Lammas Land Pavilion to Lammas Land Kiosk.

 

Mr Beresford (Chair of the Benson Area Residents Association) made a verbal presentation to WCAC:

       i.          A survey of residents in the Benson Street/Canterbury Street area had been undertaken.

     ii.          Circa £20,000 of damage to residents’ vehicles had been recorded.

   iii.          There was strong support for some form of intervention to calm traffic. A majority of residents were in favour of the proposals to create pinch points.

   iv.          Traffic volume was expected to increase in future.

 

Members of WCAC made the following comments in response to the report:

       i.                    Referred to points raised in the Open Forum and residents survey. Some residents were in favour of creating pinch points (ie reducing the road width), others preferred to close the road to traffic.

     ii.                    There were safety concerns in the area due to:

·       Speeding traffic.

·       Narrow pavements that were often mounted by vehicles.

·       Poor visibility.

 

Members of the public made the following comments in response to the report:

       i.                    A majority of residents would prefer pinch points rather than close roads to traffic. This would affect access (permeability) to the area in general, not just Benson Street/Canterbury Street.

     ii.                    The Cambridge Cycling Campaign had grave concerns regarding reducing the width of the road due to the potential impact on safety ie lack of space for contraflow of traffic.

 

Members requested a change to the recommendations. Councillor Cantrill formally proposed the following amendments (additional wording underlined, deleted text struck through):

 

The West Central Area Committee is recommended:

 

2.1          To determine whether to:

·     Proceed with the EIP proposal Option 1 (see appendix 1) to restrict traffic movement.

·     The proposal should have reference to the City Deal consultation on Histon Road.

·     Close the project and re-allocate the EIP funding available to new scheme applications within West Central area.

·     Re-consult on the existing two options, or any other potential solutions that might come forward (see appendix 1).

·     Alternatively defer the decision to give residents further opportunity to undertake consultation which would feed into WCAC’s deliberation for September 29^th’s committee.

 

2.2          To consider the re-allocation of EIP funding from Lammas Land Pavilion to Lammas Land Kiosk.

 

These amendments were agreed (unanimously).

 

Following discussion, Members resolved:

       i.                    Agreed (by 7 votes to 0):

·       To proceed with the EIP proposal Option 1 (see appendix 1 of the Officer’s report) to restrict traffic movement.

·       The proposal should have reference to the City Deal consultation on Histon Road.

     ii.                    Agreed (unanimously) to the re-allocation of EIP funding from Lammas Land Pavilion to Lammas Land Kiosk.