City Council has just issued the following press release:

Cambridge City Council and Cambridgeshire County Council are jointly funding a scheme to make changes to the signing and lining of the existing 20mph limit along Maids Causeway and Newmarket Road. The West/Central Area Committee of the City Council has allocated funding from its Environmental Improvement Programme, with the County Council allocating funding from its Minor Highway Works budget.

The changes consist of proposed new 20mph ‘roundel’ road markings on the carriageway. Amendments to the 20mph limit entry points at Victoria Avenue and East Road are also planned, including more prominent signs and proposed coloured road surfacing.

This scheme follows concerns raised by local residents that vehicles are not complying with the existing 20mph limit.

County Councillor Sarah Whitebread (Market Ward) said “the County and City Councils have progressed this proposal in response to local resident’s requests. By improving compliance with the 20mph limit, the proposals would help to make the section of road safer and more attractive to cyclists and pedestrians”

City Councillor Colin Rosenstiel (Market Ward) said “requests for changes have been received at West Central Area Committee meetings. Residents requested for the existing signing and lining to be amended in order to make it clearer to drivers that the section is 20mph. An effective and enforced 20mph limit will make the road quieter for local residents and safer for people crossing.”

Cambridgeshire County Council Cabinet Member for Community Infrastructure, Councillor Tony Orgee, said: “These improvements are possible because of the joint funding agreed by the City and County Councils and by consulting with local residents and listening carefully to their views we have been able to come up with some changes to the signing in this important area of Cambridge.”

More information on the proposed changes and how to respond to the consultation is available via the consultation pages of the Cambridge City Council web site. Alternatively you can call the City Council on 01223 457385 or email (ben.bishop@cambridge.gov.uk) to request a copy of the consultation document.

The consultation is open until 10/02/13.

Cambridge City Council have just issued this press release:

Cambridge City Council has cancelled all collections of green bins for the rest of this week, in an effort to catch up on collections of black and blue bins delayed a result of bad weather.

Icy conditions persisting on some streets and pavements mean that the council has been unable to access some areas to empty bins, with some collections still outstanding from Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Executive Councillor for Environmental and Waste Services, Cllr Jean Swanson said, “We are hoping to catch up on delayed blue and black bin collections, and we ask residents to keep putting their bins out until they are emptied. In order to catch up with missed collections we do need extra vehicles, which is why we’ve taken the decision to cancel green waste collections and use those vehicles to help with blue and black bins.”

The council’s advice for residents is to put black and blue bins out for collection as usual, and if they are not emptied on the collection day, put them back out the following day until they are emptied. Green bins due to be emptied this week will instead be emptied the week beginning 4th February.

Cambridge City Council has cancelled collections of green bins for Monday 21st and Tuesday 22nd January. These bins will be emptied on the next scheduled collection day in two weeks time.

On Monday all bin collections were suspended because of unsafe conditions on roads and pavements, with only a small number of black bins collected on main routes.

Executive Councillor for Environmental and Waste Services, Cllr Jean Swanson said, “We understand that it may be frustrating for some residents that we have had to cancel collections of green bins. However, it does mean that we can use the green collection vehicles to help us catch up on Monday’s blue and black bin collections. At this time of year, we feel these need to be the priority.”

The council’s advice for residents is to put black and blue bins out for collection as usual, and if they are not emptied on the collection day, put them back out the following day until they are emptied.

County Councillor Sarah Whitebread has updated residents who attended the public meeting in December which addressed parking issues in the Kite. Here is what she has said:

Dear all,

Thank you for attending the Kite area parking meeting before Christmas (and to those who could not make it, but have since contacted me with comments). I hope those of you who were there found the meeting in some way interesting/helpful.

Three things to update you on: 1) the working group 2) Parkside Place 3) The yellow lines changes.

WORKING GROUP
I would like to arrange a meeting as soon as possible for those interested in taking part in a working group to look at potential changes to the parking policy for the Kite. If you would like to be part of this can you please confirm by email, and let me know your availability for next weekend (26th/27th January) and the following weekend (2nd/3rd February). We will need to find somewhere to host us as well so if you have any suggestions please let me know.

PARKSIDE PLACE
I have now, after a great deal of chasing, received a legal opinion from one of the County Council’s lawyers. Their belief I’m afraid backs up what other council staff have told us – that because the development has been told it can have visitors permits, to withdraw them now would seem unreasonable and the Council would be liable for
damages.

I have not heard anything from the Cabinet member Tony Orgee since the meeting. (NB since writing this letter Sarah has secured a meeting with Tony Orgee.)

I think Council officers feel that the impact will not be as bad as residents fear, but if that is their view then I would like to see the evidence to back it up. I also think we need a change of policy from now on so that this can never happen again. The thing I am most annoyed about is that ward councillors were not alerted to this by council staff at a time when we could have done something about it.

I am arranging to meet with John Onslow, the head of environment services at the County Council at the earliest opportunity to discuss this and the way forward. If any residents would like to join me at that meeting please let me know.

YELLOW LINES CHANGES
We have collated all of the comments from the meeting and fed them back to Council staff. I now have an electronic copy of the plans so if you would like me to email them to you please let me know.

The next stage is for ward councillors to meet with Council staff to discuss the feedback at the meeting and make changes to the proposals, before they are formally advertised. I hope this can be done in the next few weeks.

I hope this covers everything, but if you have further comments or questions please let me know.

Best wishes,
Sarah