This week I spent a day seeing the scale of the science parks that have developed in South Cambridgeshire along the A505: the Babraham Institute, the Welding Institute at the Abingtons, and the Genome Centre at Hinxton. They employ together over 5,000 people and this will double in the next 15 or so years.
The science is vast in range and reach. Although in South Cambridgeshire, these science parks are part of the Cambridge high-tech phenomenon that is bringing companies and people from all over the world to work here.
It is bringing prosperity to the area, but it also challenges to our way of life and our local infrastructure - roads, schools, houses.
All the CEOs I spoke to that day cited transport and housing as problems for them and for the people who work on these sites.
I followed up that day with a meeting with county transport officers and I am pleased to see the bid to the government to fund a serious look at the long term solutions for the A505.
But long term isn't enough: for example, we need to tackle the challenges of how to enable several thousand people to get to work from wherever they start their journeys in a way that reduces the strains on our roads and the stresses on our villages, and crucially makes those people themselves feel that working in south Cambridgeshire equals a good quality of life.
My commitment as a local politician working with others is to make sure infrastructure keeps pace with the growth.
The prosperity that comes from having this scale of world-beating science and economic development on our doorstep needs to be shared. The consequences of growth at this scale cannot be allowed to be seen as a burden.
I want schoolchildren in our villages to be inspired to think that that they have some great opportunities to do great science, just next door. But if those same schoolchildren grow up knowing that they cannot afford to live anywhere near that opportunity, then we will have failed them.
Tthe scale of the task is huge.
No comments:
Post a Comment