Longstanton Road, Oakington joins the village to Longstanton and heads north across the old airfield. It’s a convenient short cut for travelling between the villages and it’s widely used by cyclists, horse riders and walkers.
It was never designed as a road for regular traffic and although you could hardly say that it’s ‘busy’ like the B1049 for example it is being used increasingly by commuters seeking to avoid the A14.
Although you’ve got to have some sympathy for people who use it that way you’ve also got to recognise that such use is not permitted and those who do so use it are breaking the law.
In 2006 it was agreed that this road would be gated. This was fully supported by Oakington Parish Council and the Area joint Committee, which decides such matters, agreed to go ahead and provide a gate. It never did which is why a group of Oakington residents asked the County Council to scrutinise this omission which it did in October 2008. The minutes of the meeting include the Council’s apology for its inaction and a site meeting is now due at which options to take this project forward again will be addressed.
Longer term of course such a closure will not be needed because plans for the Northstowe development are quite explicit about there being no road links with Oakington along this road. But who knows when Northstowe is going to be built?
I would be grateful for an explanation of why this road could not be developed to be a ‘legal’ route from Longstanton to Oakington. Surely in this time of high levels of traffic, an opportunity to use another alternative route to the A14 should be welcomed. If taxis and buses can use it, why cant it be fortified to be a normal through route?
It seems a waste of a good road to gate it off. It is such a long way round to use the A14 when you want to get to Oakington from Longstanton. I’m sure I speak for hundreds of people when I say that I really dont agree with this route being shut off – it seems madness.