It is not clear to me that school and college journeys have been taken into account in determining transport needs. This is particularly important in relation to Greater Cambridge in that, in particular, sixth form students travel into Cambridge’s two large sixth form colleges and Cambridge Regional College from all over Cambridgeshire. Cambridge Academy of Science and Technology has an even wider catchment area. These education-related journeys are not covered in the Greater Cambridge Local Plan Existing Transport Conditions Report.

The public transport journey time between Cambridge and Peterborough is not currently competitive with a private car journey time.


As regards the I/ID section of the infrastructure topic paper:

(a) East West Rail’s preferred route misses the opportunity to serve communities beyond Cambourne, such as Northstowe. It does not align well with the development plans in the First Proposals and is very much at odds with GCSP’s proposed policy J/AL “protecting the best agricultural land” - see https://cambridgeapproaches.org/ewr-impact-on-farming-and-uk-food-security/ ;
(b) the current proposals for CSET do not align well with the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and Babraham Research Campus-related development plans in the First Proposals and with the Green Infrastructure policy BG/GI designation of Gog Magog and the Chalkland Fringe as an area worthy of special protection. Nor does CSET, as currently proposed, serve the villages of Great Shelford, Stapleford and Sawston in any realistic sense. These proposals are also insufficiently ambitious as regards the Biomedical Campus staff who live in Haverhill and surrounding villages and likely simply to push congestion out of Greater Cambridge and beyond the new Park and Ride. The lack of interchangeability arising from the different system of guidance to be used for CSET means that the vehicles will not be interchangeable with buses used on the existing guided busway. This seems an odd decision, as does the fact that it is unclear how CSET buses will proceed into the centre of Cambridge. It is also unclear whether the plans for CSET take into account the ambition of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (“CUHFT”) to move its accident and emergency department across the Biomedical Campus, as part of its Addenbrookes 3 proposals;
(c) the Chisholm Trail should be extended to Whittlesford;
(d) this paper does not cover health infrastructure and, most particularly, the hospital infrastructure appropriate to meet the health needs of the growing and ageing population of Greater Cambridge, including as contemplated by the First Proposals, and any proposed expansion of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus;
(e) the Infrastructure Development Plan will need to cover timetables and sources of funding for health and educational infrastructure, including government funding and test how realistic proposals are.
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