Was at the Sutton parish council meeting last night which was a chance to hear about the problems of heavy lorries going through the village. There are real concerns that numbers will increase significantly in future years with various major building works using quarry from the Mepal pits.
Sutton parish council also told me about various road safety measures they would like to put in place, one of which is a zebra crossing. Apparently the county council are quoting £35K to build a crossing in the village (you might think painting a few white lines and putting a light at each end would cost a bit less). It seems the work requires various consultants, all of which come at a price.
Given that zebra crossings are being built up and down the country and are not a new design process, surely a smarter and cheaper approach could be developed? With the country in massive debt, the days of throwing money around are over and we need to be innovative in looking for cheaper, more efficient ways of doing things. Hopefully some fresh thinking can be applied.
Good to see County Cllr Phil Read at the meeting, but sadly no county council official turned up. That was a shame as without any written explanation either from officials, the meeting lacked factual information about the legal scope for action by the county council. Not surprisingly, the absence of clear legal and factual information creates confusion and rumour. Residents quite rightly want to know e.g. what powers the county council has to put restrictions on future planning permissions, and what proportion of journeys relate to existing planning permissions where they may be no legal scope to act.
Sent a detailed note on the meeting to Cambs County Council Leader Jill Tuck and our MP Malcolm Moss, who I also chatted to on the phone afterwards. Malcolm is already working on this issue and was aware of the points raised and has written to the county council. Lets hope by the time of the next public meeting in February next year residents will have a detailed update from county council officers, so that we can start to put in measures to control the flow of lorries through the village. I will update on this in the new year.
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