Traffic ‘wands’ on East Road in Cambridge changed over concern for emergency vehicles

Gaps have been created between the bollards on East Road after a union revealed firefighters were considering avoiding the route.

Cambridgeshire County Council said the decision followed “feedback from motorists” and confirmed it would “continue to monitor” the scheme.

Motorists had told the Cambridge Independent they were unable to pull over to allow emergency vehicles to pass following the installation of the bollards, raising fears that “lives could be at risk”.

A county council spokesperson said this week: “All our active travel schemes are being installed on a trial basis and we’re regularly reviewing the impact of them.

“Following feedback from motorists, we have altered the scheme on East Road and made the gaps between the flexible bollards wider to allow vehicles to pull over. We will continue to monitor the scheme.”

The bollards – called traffic wands – were installed as part of the council’s active travel programme to encourage more walking and cycling across Cambridgeshire using an Experimental Traffic Order and their impact will be assessed over a six-month period.

Prior to the change, a spokesperson for the Cambridgeshire Fire Brigades Union said: “As firefighters, our primary concern is that of public safety, so any measures that enhance this get our support.

“Regarding the installation of the traffic wands on East Road, we have recently been informed that some of our fire appliance drivers do consider taking alternative routes, where possible, in order to avoid East Road.

“This is because the other road users currently have no option to give way in an emergency, so the fire appliances and other emergency vehicles could take slightly longer than before, when getting to an incident.

“This has been raised internally, and we believe the fire service are in talks with the council to highlight situations such as this and to see if there is anything that can be done.”