Went to a meeting last Friday at Linton where councillors from both Cambridgeshire and Suffolk assembled with the MP for West Suffolk, Matthew Hancock, and officers from the two counties.
The meeting looked at out how to take forward making the A1307 a part of the growth strategy for Cambridgeshire, linking in with the needs of West Suffolk, including the town of Haverhill, which has long been a feeder for people working in and around Cambridge.
The county transport officers were very clear that the City Deal would not release funds for doing things like sorting out the admittedly horrendous traffic problems in Linton - its a local issue not a national one. The Treasury mandarins would not buy that. The City Deal funds are for infrastructure that contributes to driving forward the Cambridgeshire economy that will help take the country out of recession - nothing more and nothing less.
One key point is that increasingly transport in and out of Cambridge will be geared to public transport - whether more of the guided bus, or rail, and people simply will not be able to just drive en masse into the City to work - unless we are going to build four-lane highways. This might mean people will be looking for homes near a transport hub - like Whittlesford - so that they can get the train into Cambridge, and this will drive up demand for houses.
Creating an A1307 transport artery might also mean better public transport links for villages such as Babraham and the Abingtons - at the same time, it might mean a lot more traffic.
I'll post more as this shapes up - a long term issue, but a pretty big one.
No comments:
Post a Comment