Councillors confirm their backing for Cambourne to Cambridge and Cambridge South East Transport busways

Councillors have confirmed their commitment to two controversial off-road busways and agreed to tackle “doubt and disagreement” in the schemes by sharing congestion data.

Highways authority Cambridgeshire County Council agreed yesterday (Tuesday, 11 February) that it still backs the proposals for the Cambourne to Cambridge (C2C) and Cambridge South East Transport (CSET) busways.

Members also backed an amendment which commits the council to undertaking and producing a survey on the level of congestion and average travel times on the key roads which the C2C and CSET busways seek to avoid through off-road solutions.

It also commits the council to outline the potential for future growth in traffic on these roads, where possible.

Cllr Michael Atkins (Lib Dem, Hardwick) said that although the busways have the potential to bring “significant benefits” to communities, businesses and universities, they have also attracted “significant local and national opposition”.

“Now, in both cases, alternative alignments involving on-road bus lanes have been proposed by local charities and parish councils,” he said.

Cllr Atkins added: “The GCP has looked at versions of these alternatives and concluded that because of the level of current and future traffic on these major roads, the alternatives would not bring the same level of benefits nor sufficient support for satellite communities, and therefore the off-road routes have remained.

“These conclusions have not been accepted by local residents, as indeed you have heard today, they believe, as I understand, that refinements and improvements through the alternative alignments have not been properly considered, and have doubts in the methodology for assessing journey times and the current level of congestion.

“In my amendment today, I seek to tackle a major element of doubt and disagreement in the scheme, namely an accurate picture of the current congestion on key roads such as the A1303 and A1307 and the sense of how this might change in the future, which is ultimately the justification for the off-road alignments of these two bus roads.”

Conservative opposition leader Cllr Steve Count added: “I support this amendment because information can never be a bad thing, and this is seeking information to supplement the short, or out-of-date, information in the actual application.”

He noted that the GCP has considered this in its submissions but said this would help the council “to bring a level of common understanding of the facts to this debate”.

A Transport and Works Act Order (TWAO) application for C2C was submitted to the Secretary of State in November. The period for objections to the order closed on 8 January, with approximately 300 objections lodged.

A public inquiry for C2C has now been announced – although a date has yet to be set – and the council is required to confirm its resolution to submit the TWAO application ahead of this.

A TWAO for the CSET scheme, which the GCP says will provide “fast and frequent bus journeys” to Cambridge Biomedical Campus, was submitted last month.

An inquiry is also likely to be called for CSET, meaning the council will also be required to confirm that decision. It decided to confirm both on Tuesday.

A total of 35 councillors backed continuing with the schemes and 18 voted against.