Mill Road bridge set to close again after council decision
Mill Road bridge in Cambridge will be closed to most private cars after Cambridgeshire County Council agreed to reintroduce a bus gate.
The authority hopes the restrictions will encourage people to choose ‘sustainable travel options’, such as cycling and walking.
A number of exemptions are planned, including for buses, cyclists, pedestrians, taxis, blue badge holders (who will be able to nominate two cars), and authorised vehicles.
Drivers who are not exempt face fines for travelling through the bus gate, which will be enforced by automatic number plate recognition cameras. There will be ‘period of grace’ planned for about a month after the bus gate put in place where drivers will get a warning letter instead.
The plans have divided people in the area, with disputes raised over whether the bus gate will benefit or negatively impact businesses.
A temporary bus gate was introduced back in June 2020 to encourage sustainable travel and to help enable social distancing during the pandemic.
In July 2021, the county council decided to remove the restriction, but said it would undertake a full review and public consultation on the options for the future use of Mill Road.
A report to the county council’s highways and transport committee said the results of the consultation showed that 72 per cent of respondents supported restricting motor vehicles from crossing Mill Road bridge.
It added that following this there had been 690 objections lodged and 291 comments made in support when the proposed Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) to restrict access was advertised.
The report said the objections “closely reflected” the objections made during the consultation.
At the committee meeting earlier today (Tuesday, March 7), Shapour Meftah, chairman of the Mill Road Traders Association, said the bus gate would disperse traffic onto surrounding roads, making them a “miserable place to live”.
He said: “It does not make sense, yes we want a better life and a better environment, but we cannot pass the buck to other roads, we have to make sure it is fair to everyone.”
However, Andy Kennedy, from the Mill Road for People group, said data from the bridge closure in 2019 showed there was “no lasting impact”.
He said the group wanted to see Mill Road become a “place to visit, not just drive through”, and said he believed the bus gate would help to increase footfall.
‘Decision on Mill Road bus gate should be delayed’
The Conservative group at the county council proposed that a decision on the bus gate should be delayed until traffic modelling had been completed to show the effect of the closure on other streets.
Councillor Alan Sharp (Conservative) said the Mill Road bus gate was one of the “most important decisions” the county council had made in his time at the authority.
He said there were “two conflicting results from consultations” one showing people were in support and one showing there was opposition, and said he did not think the issue was “clear cut”.
Cllr Sharp said he did have concerns that restricting access to Mill Road bridge would “move the problem” to surrounding streets.
Councillor Jan French (Conservative) said she had concerns that Mill Road proposals were being considered in isolation, and said she believed more work needed to be done on a “proper transport study”.
Councillor Mac McGuire (Conservative) said he had concerns that it was not clear how improvements to Mill Road would come about. He said there was a “wish list” of things, such as decluttering, but he said the report had no information about how it would be achieved.
Councillor Peter McDonald (Liberal Democrat) said the Conservative amendment was “kicking the issue into the long grass”, added that he believed the committee had enough information to make a decision.
Cllr McDonald added that he thought the bus gate would benefit Mill Road in the long term, but said it was important that funding was made available to improve the road’s public realm.
‘Bus gate will have economic benefits for businesses’
Councillor Brian Milnes (Liberal Democrat) said he was sympathetic to the business owners who had concerns about the potential economic impact the restrictions could have.
However, he said he believed the change would have an “economic benefit” for the area, particularly when also “improving the public realm”.
Councillor Gerri Bird (Labour) made the casting vote previously to reopen the bridge in 2021, and said the current decision was “hard” as she would “upset somebody” however she voted.
She explained how following the 2021 decision to reopen the bridge she had received 100 tweets a day from people and had been threatened with violence to the point that she had to get the police involved. She said she did not want that situation to happen again.
Cllr Bird said she still had some concerns about the plans, explaining that she believed further exemptions were needed for carers, and for people with disabilities who do not qualify for a blue badge.
Cllr Bird said the authority also needed to consider nighttime safety, highlighting that concerns had been raised last time the bridge was closed by young women who said they were frightened due to the road being so quiet.
She also said people needed to be able to apply for the exemptions in other ways, rather than just online. It was clarified at the meeting that a phone number was also proposed to be made available for people.
Councillor Neil Shailer (Labour) said the authority would continue to monitor the impact of the restrictions and could “evolve” the plans.
Councillor Alex Beckett (Liberal Democrat), chair of the committee, said the decision was not one the councillors took lightly.
He added that while the councillors may have different views, he stressed to the public that they all wanted to improve the county.
Cllr Beckett said he had concerns about the impact on traders and said improvements to the public realm were “vital” to help businesses and said he would be “pushing” to bring forward those improvements.
The Conservative proposal to defer the decision failed to get enough support. When the decision to introduce the bus gate on the Mill Road bridge was put to a vote, eight councillors voted in favour and seven voted against.
Work on putting the physical infrastructure in place to enforce the bus gate is due to start later this year.