Too much of a (very) good thing?

The IWM airfield at Duxford is one of Cambridgeshire's tourism success stories, with increasing numbers of visitors and a range of events building on the core of the impressive aircraft displays there. A lot of local businesses provide services to the museum and if it was not there then the land would be ripe for a large housing development. Just like Waterbeach. 

But the appeal of the displays - especially on a beautiful early autumn day - means that thousands of cars head for Duxford. At 7.30 am yesterday morning there were static queues of cars on the A505 as far back as the McDonalds roundabout _ I saw them myself! Hours before the starts of the show. The car park and ride at Trumpington - which is designed to ease the pressure on the site itself on display days appears to have been overwhelmed - not least because there was a car boot sale going on there at the same time! 

In some local streets traffic cones preventing parking were not put down which meant residential streets in places like Heathfield were filled with visitor cars. Like any major event, the police and the highways have a traffic control plan agreed with the venue - and appeals went out on all media yesterday and earlier warning people of the delays. But we do have to make sure the traffic management plans are robust - and if that means renting a few more fields nears the museum for car parks, or the police putting in more traffic control, or extra trains to whittlesford, or the park and ride having extra staff, then that is what needs to be thought through.

I will be asking the police and the highways and the venue for assurances that they are doing this.