Today (Friday, 4 October), a special Highways and Transport committee voted to approve the modal filter on Mill Road bridge. This means the bridge will be closed to all motor vehicles, except buses, pedestrians, cyclists, emergency services, taxis and blue badge holders’ registered vehicles.
The special committee members considered responses received in the recent five-week statutory notice period for the proposed Traffic Regulation Order (TRO).
In Spring 2022, the Greater Cambridge Partnership carried out a consultation where 1,986 online and written responses were received and saw 72% of respondents supporting restricting motor vehicles from crossing Mill Road bridge.
Recently, a five-week TRO notice period from 9 August to 13 September was advertised following the publication of the proposed Traffic Regulation Order. The council received 1,894 objections (46.5%) and 2,155 comments supporting (52.9%) the proposals.
Members of the special Highways and Transport Committee, following a majority vote, agreed to proceed with the scheme.
The closure will be implemented as a bus gate and blue badge holders will need to register up to two vehicles for exemption via an application form online, which will be available from Monday, 7 October.
Blue badge holders will be required to provide a copy of their valid blue badge paperwork.
Following approval, work will now get underway to implement the bus gate and work is expected to start next month (November) and be completed in December. More details will follow.
The bus gate will be enforced by Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras (ANPR). Once installed, there will be a month where non-exempt vehicles will receive warning notices only and if they are exempt, would be encouraged to register online.
Cllr Henry Batchelor, chair of the special Highways and Transport Committee at Cambridgeshire County Council, said: “Today, as the chair of this special committee, we heard from all sides and listened to the concerns raised. There has been a lot of engagement on this project and whilst this was not an easy decision, we agreed restricting most of the traffic over the bridge would be beneficial and give local people more improvements.”
In addition, the council is exploring the public realm, walking and cycling improvements along Mill Road, in collaboration with the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority and the Greater Cambridge Partnership. This will include general improvements such as, additional cycle parking, signage and decluttering the highway.
The meeting was live streamed and is available to listen back on the council’s YouTube page.
