County Councillor David Jenkins and Impington Parish Councillor Vanessa Kelly met county officers on site, 29 Sep 08, to talk about moneys which might be available to upgrade the B1049 from a cyclists’ viewpoint. Although the challenges which are presented are significant, especially north of the Histon lights, there will be useful money available over the next years as a result of local developments and various national schemes. The summary below will be updated as more information becomes available.
The biggest pot amounts to £3.6 million which Cambridge and its surrounds will get by virtue of it being a Cycling Demonstration Town. This can only be spent with match funding so will result in over £7million investment over the next 2 and a half years.
Next in line is the £638K Arbury park section 106 money to improve the A14 junction. That’s not going to fund a bridge but it could go some way to improving the layout of the junction and to providing a better system of traffic lights.
There is also some hundreds of thousands of pounds available through the Local Strategic Partnership ‘reward grant’ for the cycle path between Histon and Cottenham although those who use this particular route will know that it’ll need a lot more spent on it than that.
And finally there’s a share of £150K which is also Arbury Park money specific for cyclist access provision. This must be shared with the City but the Impington share should be enough to cover some significant improvements around the Cambridge Road junction north of the A14.
As a resident of Impington who trys to cycle to the Junior and IVC with two children I would support the reduction of the speed limit along the B1049 to a maximum of 30 mph and 20mph enforced zones at school drop off/pick up times. The provision of a dedicated cycle route that does not peter out just wwhen you need it is also an essential to encourage cycling and to ensure htere are genuine safer routes to school. Improvements should be made at the traffic lights on the green in particular.