Lib Dems Act To Help Families Plagued By Speeding Drivers

Speeding drivers and inadequate traffic calming measures have made life a misery for families living on a Cambridge road.

For years residents of Fen Road, East Chesterton have been plagued by cars racing along the road and heavy lorries bouncing across the speed bumps.

Now the city’s Liberal Democrats have scrutinised the issue and come up with a number of ideas to solve the problem.

They are taking their findings to Cambridge City Council’s North Area Committee on Thursday (November 24) and again in January to give residents the chance to have their say.

Cambridgeshire County Councillor, Ian Manning, who represents East Chesterton and campaigner, Clare Blair who lives in the ward have set out their ideas in a document which will be presented to the committee.

And it has been endorsed by Cambridge MP, Julian Huppert, who represented East Chesterton on the county council for eight years.

Ian said: “This has been a blight on our ward for a long time. In order to fix the problem, we are asking the whole area committee and all parties to support our push for solutions.”

Julian said: “Families living in this road have been plagued by speeding drivers for many years and traffic calming measures have failed to address the problem.

“I applaud Ian and Clare on the work that has gone into this document. I hope residents will take this opportunity to make their views known so that a solution can be found quickly.”

A year ago, at Clare’s request Cambridgeshire County Council highways officers drew up a scheme to improve traffic calming measures and prevent cars mounting grass verges to avoid speed bumps.

The scheme could cost around £150,000 and it is hoped this could be funded from the Northern Area Corridor Transport Plan.

Clare said: “This is certainly the most important highways issue affecting East Chesterton.

“Yet despite raising this issue with officers and the county council Cabinet for many years, no solution has been acted upon.”

Other solutions suggested in the document prepared by Ian and Clare include:

• an alternative route out of Fen Road to remove lorry traffic;
• minor environmental improvements;
• a footpath over the railway crossing to allow children to walk to school rather than be driven.

PDF attachment with the plans is available here.