20/02504/S73: Varsity Hotel and Spa, 24 Thompsons Lane
The Varsity Hotel and Spa is seeking approvals from the planning committee
Issues
This section lists issues - problems on the street network and related matters.
Issues always relate to some geographical location, whether very local or perhaps city-wide.
You can create a new issue using the button on the right.
Listed issues, most recent first, limited to the area of Cambridge Cycling Campaign:
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Glisson Road and Hills Road junction
How should the junction with Glisson Road and Hills Road be improved to improve safety for people cycling, walking and driving?
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V16 Butt lane
Crow Ideal solution for Butt Lane
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V51 Underpass to Landbeach road
This is an ideal solution to the flow at Landbeach road.
Mobility needs from Landbeach, highlighted in Milton community are to provide cycle crossing at the A10 for school kids and parents. -
20/04826/FUL demoliton of Lockton House and 1+2 Brooklands Avenue
Proposal to demolish a couple of houses on Brooklands Avenue.
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21/00802/FUL: 7no. apartments, 87 Perne Road
Extensions and internal alterations to create 7 no. new apartments including new detached 1 bedroom unit in rear curtlilage with off road parking for 2 vehicles and bins and cycle store
87 Perne Road Cambridge CB1 3SB
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21/01292/SCOP: Land south of Coldhams Lane for development
Request for a formal scoping opinion for development at Land South Of Coldhams Lane, Cambridge
Land South Of Coldhams Lane Cambridge Cambridgeshire
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21/00843/FUL: 9 residential units, 509 Coldhams Lane
Demolition of existing structures, erection of new building containing nine self-contained residential units, with associated parking, hard and soft landscaping works, and associated works and infrastructure
509 Coldhams Lane Cambridge CB1 3JS
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Cycling on and around Trumpington Road
How can cycling on Trumpington Road be improved, especially to make it safe for people cycling to local schools?
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Ox-Cam Arc
Last month, the Government launched the process to develop a long-term Spatial Framework for the Oxford-Cambridge Arc. The Government’s ambition is to support a better, more sustainable approach to planning for growth and investment in the area.
The Government's proposal:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/oxford-cambridge-arc
What is the Arc?
The Oxford-Cambridge Arc (the Arc) is a globally significant area between Oxford, Milton Keynes and Cambridge. It is formed of five ceremonial counties: Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire.
It supports over two million jobs, adds over £110 billion to the economy every year and houses one of the fastest growing economies in England.
Our ambition for the Arc
There is an opportunity, recognised by government and local partners, to build a better economic, social and environmental future for the area. With high-quality, well-connected and sustainable communities making the Arc an even more beautiful place to live, work and visit.
Delivering the ambition
To achieve this ambition, the government alongside local partners, is going to:
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Develop a Spatial Framework for the Arc; a long-term strategic plan to help coordinate the infrastructure, environment and new developments in the area. We are committed to working with local communities throughout so we can create beautiful and sustainable places for residents and workers to enjoy.
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Explore the creation of an Arc Growth Body; that would be a clear economic leadership voice for the Arc, championing its talent and assets internationally, supporting businesses, and fostering innovation.
Areas of focus
Productivity and jobs
The Arc currently generates over £110 billion to the UK economy every year.
The Arc has the potential to become a world-leading and globally renowned centre for business, innovation and investment in a variety of industries, including AI (Artificial Intelligence), advanced manufacturing and life sciences.
Placemaking
With a strategic approach to planning for growth, we can enhance the area’s natural environment and biodiversity, ensure communities and businesses have access to the infrastructure they need, and ensure new development is more affordable and beautiful so that it enhances places across the Arc.
Infrastructure and connectivity
Improving connectivity across the Arc with a new rail line between Oxford, Milton Keynes and Cambridge will link communities with employment and leisure opportunities.
While integrating sustainable and accessible transport options will support our ambition for the Arc and ensure homes and employment sites are situated in the right places.
Environment
Encouraging clean growth and the creation of sustainable communities will support us in improving the quality of life for those that live and work in the Arc. While also helping us future-proof its businesses and communities against the effects of climate change.
Key documents
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Bar Hill Cycleway
This is probably an old issue, but I only discovered this cycleway on Sunday. I very nearly had a bad accident cycling through the pinch point (pram arms) at the Dry Drayton end of the Bar Hill Cycleway. There are many photos on Cycle Street's photomap (e.g. 26327) that illustrate the invisibility in the shade of the metal arms. No signage or reflective tape to warn of the hazard. For me, this is MUCH more dangerous than the A14 bridges. (I have signed the petition and attended the Highways meeting.) Similar obstruction towards Bar Hill too, but by then I knew to walk the bike through!
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21/00537/FUL: 5no. dwellings, 29 High Street Chesterton
21/00537/FUL | Demolition of existing dwelling and erection of five dwellings and associated landscaping | 29 High Street Chesterton Cambridge CB4 1NQ
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21/00284/FUL: 1no. 2-bed and 1no. 1-bed apartments, Maitland Avenue
21/00284/FUL | Erection of a detached building containing 1no. 2-bed and 1no. 1-bed duplex apartments, with associated car parking and landscaping | 1 Maitland Avenue Cambridge CB4 1TA
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21/00442/FUL: 1no. 2 bed flat and 1no. 1 bed flat, Davy Road
21/00442/FUL | Two storey side and single storey front and rear extensions to create one, two bed flat and one, one bed flat | 5 Davy Road Cambridge CB1 3QW
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21/00358/FUL: 2no. commercial units & 6no. flats, Cherry Hinton Road
21/00358/FUL | Refurbishment and extensions to the existing building to provide 2 no. commercial units (Use Class E) at ground floor with 6 no. flats to the rear and on the upper floors along with cycle parking, landscaping and associated infrastructure | 78-80 Cherry Hinton Road Cambridge CB1 7BH
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21/00526/FUL: change of use to large HMO, Galfrid Road
21/00526/FUL | Retrospective for the existing rear L-shape extension and change of use of dwelling from small HMO C4 to large scale 8 no. person HMO (Sui Generis), including use of the existing rear L-shape extension. | 2 Galfrid Road Cambridge CB5 8ND
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21/00220/FUL: 1no. 1.5 storey dwelling Newmarket Road
21/00220/FUL | Construction of 1no. Detached 1 1/2 storey dwelling to the rear of no. 579 Newmarket Road | 579 Newmarket Road Cambridge CB5 8PA
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20/05360/FUL: Erection of cycle shelter, 93 Regent Street
Plans for erection of cycle shelter
93 Regent Street Cambridge CB2 1AW
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21/00188/FUL: 2 storey dwelling, Land r/o 207 Cherry Hinton Road
21/00188/FUL:
Erection of a two storey dwelling, with associated amenity space, parking, bin and cycle store following demolition of garage.
Land R/o 207 Cherry Hinton Road, Cambridge, CB1 7DA
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Development Proposal for 35 homes on Sandy Lane
There is a proposal to build 35 new homes on Sandy Lane (described by the developers as 26 'family houses' and 9 'affordable homes').
The project has a website: https://yoursay.online/sandy-lane#about-the-project
At 6pm today (23rd February 2021) there will be webinar about the development (hosted by the developers).
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21/00264/FUL: multi use buildings, Blocks B2&F2, Devonshire Quarter, D'shire Rd
21/00264/FUL: Erection of two new buildings comprising Class E(g)i/E(g)ii floorspace including ancillary accommodation/ facilities with associated plant and cycle parking for Block F2 and an Aparthotel (Class C1) with multi-storey car park for Network Rail, including car and cycle parking, for Block B2 with associated plant, hard and soft landscaping and permanent access from Devonshire Road to the Cambridge Station Car Park, utilising the existing pedestrian and cycle access, restricted to emergency access to the railway only.
Blocks B2 & F2, Devonshire Quarter, Devonshire Road, Cambridge
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21/00038/FUL: 2 bed dwelling, 199-201 Cherry Hinton / Coniston Road
21/00038/FUL
Erection of new 2 bedroom 1.5 storey dwelling, associated works along with new parking/cycle parking following demolition of existing outbuildings
199-201 Cherry Hinton Road, Cambridge, CB1 7BX
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21/00185/FUL New 2 bedroom house
New 2 bedroom house being built close to an existing property.
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21/00027/FUL: change use to 8 bed HMO and a 2bed flat, 1 Hurrell Road, CB4 3RQ
21/00027/FUL | Change of use from Class C3(a) to C4 turning a 7bed dwelling to a large no 8bed HMO and 1no 2bed self-contained flat.
1 Hurrell Road Cambridge CB4 3RQ
This map shows all issues, whether points, routes, or areas:
The most popular issues, based on the number of votes:
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Chisholm Trail
Proposed route along the rail corridor through Cambridge, part of which is in the Cambridge Local Plan.
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NCN route 11 and the Waterbeach Gap
I've visited Riverside to Waterbeach with William Rayner of county cycling team. He's revising signage here and providing it along the St Ives corridor, with the old NCN 51 being renamed Regional Route 24 (blue patch). We've decided finally to continue to sign NCN 11 from Riverside Bridge to Waterbeach Station, and he's looking at suitable (hopefully temporary) wording to advise to follow NCN 51 to Bottisham for destinations beyond Waterbeach, which will hopefully eliminate misrouting those from outside the area.
Our inspection of existing signs showed that only one new signboard was provided on completion 5 years ago of Riverside Bridge. Signboards still send people via Green Dragon. Sustrans considers signage is an important part of any route project.
The intention is to sign Milton Country Park as a destination, not as part of the route, removing route signs within the park, and probably retaining Coles Road as the signed route through the village, though it would be much preferable to have improvements past the shops and the village green, pubs etc.
Retaining the route to Waterbeach as NCN will help keep the gap in people's awareness.
I am planning to contact again the landowner of the missing link between Bottisham Lock and Fen Road, Lode with a suggestion for a low-level route, southeast side of the Bottisham Lode floodbank which is the route of the public footpath, where signs forbid cycling. It might be considered more visually acceptable. All parish councils are for the route, including the one of which he is a member.
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Safer Walking and Cycling between NW Cambridge and Girton
Our campaign for safer walking and cycling to/from NWCambridge now has a petition and a first video (of five) summarising our position.
See our new video summarising our petition:
https://youtu.be/hIlQAzsU0js?t=1sI’d be delighted if you could promote this to your networks. Time is of the essence because a Senate House discussion is coming up [3 Nov 2015], and I will report the number of signatures on our petition there. (But signatures after the date will still be useful.)
More information:
http://tinyurl.com/EddingtonSafetyThe petition:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/EddingtonSafetyAnyone is welcome to sign the petition; we ask people to use the Comment field to let us know if they are University Member / University employee / City resident / SouthCambs resident / etc.
For twitter purposes the recommended hashtag is #EddingtonSafety and there is an @EddingtonSafety account too.
Thanks very much
David
David J C MacKay FRS
djcm1@cam.ac.ukRegius Professor of Engineering,
Cambridge University Engineering DepartmentAuthor of “Sustainable Energy - without the hot air” www.withouthotair.com
and “Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms” www.inference.eng.cam.ac.uk/mackay/Girton resident and parent.
Cambridge Cycling Campaign Member -
Lack of cycle routes to Cambridge Business Park, Waterbeach
My employer is planning to relocate from central cambridge to the Cambridge Business Park (near Waterbeach). There is currently no decent cycle (or footpath!) access to this business park which avoids riding along the A10. I am a confident cyclist but I am not looking forward to riding to work along sections of the A10.
Are there any plans for cycle route construction which the campaign can, perhaps, help accelerate?
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Bar Hill to Cambridge Cycleway
There is a campaign for a cycle route between Bar Hill and Cambridge, also connecting Dry Drayton, Madingley and Coton to North-West Cambridge.
Currently cycle provision for these villages is poor. Bar Hill has lower rates of cycling than other villages that are closer to Cambridge.
The campaign site is: http://www.bhddmadcycle.com/
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Reach Fair Ride
The Reach Fair ride takes place on the early Bank Holiday Monday (May Day) in May.
The web page for it is:
http://www.camcycle.org.uk/events/rides/The planning overview is summarised:
http://www.camcycle.org.uk/events/rides/timeline.htmlI've created this issue to help plan this event.
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Replace Hooper Street gates with bollard
The permeability gate between Hooper Street and Kingston Street is obstructive as it only allows passage in one direction at a time.
Given the ever-increasing amount of cycling in areas like this, it's time to get this replaced with a simple bollard arrangement that would allow two-way passage whilst still enable the emergency services to unlock for access in an emergency.
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Dangerous to cross Milton Road diagonally at Toucan crossing
As the bridleway crosses Milton Road, it swaps sides of the busway, so most pedestrians and cyclists want to cross diagonally. However the toucan crossing only protects people crossing Milton Road. It doesn't stop busway traffic.
This is confusing and dangerous. When the road traffic stops at red lights, and the Toucan crossing turns green, it feels very safe to cross the busway. Yet buses can come from three directions (busway west, busway east, Milton Road south) at speeds of 30 mph.
Cyclists in particular are tempted to cross diagonally from north west to south east. Last week I saw a near accident.
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A14 very hostile for cycling
The A14 is a very hostile, dangerous road for cycling.
Improvements to it, as well as broader changes to the national framework for cyclist crossings of major roads, are needed.
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Parking policy review
The County appointed an officer back in June to review parking policy across the County, starting with the City.
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The 'Milton Road Effect'
Vehicles are continually abusing cyclists who use the road here because the bus lane on the other side forces the carriageway to be narrow.
Although there is the cycleway, it has the usual problems of loss of priority at sideroads, bins in the way, people going in and out of driveways, etc.
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Upgrading Milton Road to Dutch standards
Milton Road, like other main roads in the city, is a mix of typically bad bits of cycle infrastructure. There is considerable scope, possibly within the City Deal funding, to rework the whole streetscape to Dutch standards.
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Cottenham to Histon Cycleway
The Cottenham to Histon cycleway needs improvement.
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Improved cycling facilities on A603 in Barton
The current Barton to Cambridge off road cycle path starts at the White Horse in Barton. During term time Cambridge bound traffic is now backed up and slow moving throughout Barton along the A603. This leaves no clear safe route for cyclists. The road has white hatchings down the middle and would be wide enough for a proper on-road cycle lane to leave a safe passage past the queuing vehicles.
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Poor exit from West Cambridge site onto Clerk Maxwell Road
There's a very poor dogleg right-angle with barriers at the entrance/exit from the West Cambridge site to Clerk Maxwell Road.
This should be turned into a wide splay with good visibility.
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State of Waterbeach-Lode link
Has there been any improvement in the "new" NCN 11 route from Waterbeach to Lode since last summer? Last time I went that way I had to wheel the bike across fields and carry it over two or three stiles.
Any information, including a forecast date when a proper route is likely to be built, welcome. Thanks.
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Emmanuel College 12/0029/FUL
Starting a thread about this application here so we can continue on from the previous planning list discussion.
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Northstowe Planning Application
Major planning application here - c. 10,000 homes
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Railway Route between Cambridge and Cherry Hinton
The railway line from Cambridge to Newmarket turns out across Coldham's Common and right through the middle of Cherry Hinton, and then carries on passing to the north of Fulbourn.
There are currently (2013) two main routes from the east of Cambridge to Cherry Hinton - the Tins and Snakey Path. However both have long very narrow sections involving pedestrian conflict.
The railway line is single track - but satellite images show the bridges crossing Barnwell Road and Coldham's Lane were both built for dual track. So this means there should easily be enough room to accommodate a cycleway alongside the railway.
This route could then connect up with the Chisholm Trail and provide a direct fast cycle route to and from the city and the Science Park area.
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Landbeach to Cambridge Cycleway
The Landbeach Parish Council would like the bridgeway from Landbeach to Cambridge to be upgraded to a cycleway.
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Should Cambridge 'Go Dutch' (or Danish)
London Cycling Campaign has reorientated its policy towards a 'Go Dutch' approach.
This aims to learn from best practice abroad rather than continuing with the 'hierarchy of provision' that, in 20 years in the UK, has arguably failed to deliver meaningful change.
This is an overarching issue for conceptual discussion of this issue.
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Girton Interchange "Improvements"
At the moment it is possible to cycle from Cambridge Road, near Madingley, to Girton, on a bridleway that crosses over the A428 and then passes under the M11 at the Girton Interchange. You can then cross three roads (A1307) and reach a pavement on the North-East side of the Interchange. Using the pavement you can then reach Washpit Lane and cycle up towards Girton. (The pavement is marked as a shared-use route on the OSM Cycle map, although I am not sure that it really is.)
Apart from having to be careful when crossing the A1307 junction it is a rather pleasant route to ride.
The Girton Interchange is being "improved" to reduce the bottleneck for cars. Does anyone know what plans there are to ensure that the current route through remains open and whether there are plans to improve the bridleway route through? Or will this be another example of roads being developed to the detriment of footpaths/bridleways.
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Proper cycle provision on Cherry Hinton Road needed
Cherry Hinton Road is currently mainly typical 'blue sign on a pavement' provision, despite having the edge-to-edge width in places for proper cycle provision. A longer-term objective should be to upgrade this.
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Evil posts on busway cycleway
There are some evil short grey posts on the busway cycleway that are really hard to see in the dark. I have heard of a number of people hitting them with disastrous consequences
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Cambridge Cycling Campaign's "Project Orange"
Project Orange is an attempt develop our general strategy during the year 2013.
It involves
1) Should Cambridge Go Dutch (or Copenhagenize)
2) A more assertive stance in our interactions with agencies: Demanding of them to make feasible what seems infeasible
3) focus on a regional area 10 miles (15 km) around Cambridge and a dartboard network structure to connect villages,
4) the development of a Bicycle Infrastructure Assessment Tool (BIAC) which will allow us to grade and praise provision
5) Priority over sideroads as part of a Dutch-style approach
5) Development of Visualisation Tools for major projects (Chisholm Trail, Newnham to Newmarket Rd, Mitcham's Corner)