We estimate that we will need to spend around £500 million in the Cambridge area to make it possible for people living further away to get into Cambridge. Sums of money like this cannot be raised through council tax or from developers.

In the past few years, the Council has been very successful in getting money for transport schemes and has secured around £10 million of Government funding a year, but to implement our vision would take 50 years based on current Government funding levels – too late to address the pressing issues we face now.

Developers will be required to make some contribution to transport improvements but, however welcome this is, it will not make enough impact on our congestion problem.

In order to bridge this massive funding gap, the County Council has made a bid to Government for £500 million under the Government’s Transport Innovation Fund. The fund aims to help local authorities reduce congestion by supporting innovative local transport packages. These combine better public transport services and other measures as alternatives to the car with congestion charging. To qualify for funding, the two must go hand in hand.