A note from Catherine Smart:

Usually the Councils do not try to consult people over the summer, believing it to be more efficient if it is done outside the holiday period.    This does not seem to apply to this summer as there has been a build up of issues for which consultation is needed…

Mill Road Depot

The consultation on the Supplementary Planning Guidance on the Mill Road Depot site started on 3rd June and has a week to go as it ends on 22nd July.  Two public exhibitions have been held during this period. Comments can be made on the City Council website.

The plans were discussed at two work-shops and have been shaped by comments and input made at them.  Most of the site will be used for housing with some open space in the centre and community facilities at the Mill Road side.  The Chisholm Trail will go through the site and cross under Mill Road through one of the disused arches of the railway bridge.

Motor access will only be from Mill Road with pedestrian and cycle access from Hooper Street: though, in an emergency, it would be possible to take blue light vehicles in that way.   The pattern of the streets in the development will follow the linear line of the area.

About 167 homes are planned and will be a mixture of houses, apartments and possibly some converted coach houses.   The height of the buildings will take account of what is on the other side of the boundary: the west will be two stories rising to 3 to 4 stories alongside the railway line.  At least 40% of the homes will be affordable with the possibility of some co-operative housing.

The Supplementary Planning Guidance sets many of the parameters within which the final plans are drawn up, so it is important to get it right.

City Deal Transport plans

While the aim of the City Deal transport plans are laudable, there are doubts about the actual methods the Conservative and Labour council leaders have agreed in principle.

Road closures on Mill Road railway bridge, Coldhams Lane railway bridge, East Road and Hills Road pretty well blocks off the whole of the east of the city from the city centre.  Cycling, for those who can, is the obvious alternative.  A bus is the only option for those who can’t – assuming a bus stop is within walking distance.

The rejection out of hand, without any consultation, of peak-time congestion charging and this substitution of peak time road closures has yet to be tested.  It might have been fairer to have consulted over both.  Peak time congestion charging would have at least given people the option to consider if paying suited them better than just not being able to get to the centre in a car.   So much depends on where you are going to, and for what reason and what and where you are going on to.

Consultation started on 11th July and will last till 10th October and comments can be made on the City Council website.

The Cambridgeshire Devolution Deal

A third big consultation exercise is over the Devolution deal offered by George Osborne when he was Chancellor.   Consultation started on 8th July and will continue till 23rd August – unless the new government pulls the offer: it has yet to confirm it.

The City Council itself would lose no formal powers but the same cannot be said for the County Council.  Large sounding extra sums of money have been offered for transport infra-structure and for housing.  Part of the housing money would be directly controlled by the City Council and the rest, like the transport money, would be controlled by an elected Mayor.

The Mayor, would be elected by voters in the whole of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and the only scrutiny would be by the leaders of the local authorities comprising the area.  These Governance arrangements lack the checks and balances which British Democracy has built up over the centuries and most councillors in the city are very uneasy about them.

The Labour majority on the City Council believe the cash, especially the extra for affordable housing, trumps the unease and voted to accept it.  The County Council has also voted in favour.

 

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