The trial closure of Mill Road bridge to all traffic except buses, cyclists and pedestrians will continue into the summer.
In order to promote cycling and walking during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a lasting legacy of greener, safer transport, the bridge has been closed to private motor vehicle traffic since June 2020. Red and white ‘build outs’ have also been in place along Mill Road to help people social distance when out and about.
A consultation on the trial closure of the bridge ran from June through to December last year which received over 3,500 responses. The survey asked respondents whether they were in favour or against the bridge closure, what they would like to happen next and for their thoughts about the ‘build outs’.
A review of the survey detected a large number of duplicate entries which raised concerns that there had been attempts to skew the feedback. The extra work caused by these irregularities means that the project could no longer be reviewed in March. The project will now be reviewed by the Highways and Transport Committee in June. Since then there has been a change of political control on Cambridgeshire County Council. In May the Joint Administration published the agreement reached between the Liberal Democrat, Labour and Independent Groups, who now control the Council. In it they agreed to make sustainability their main priority and to bring forward the target of reducing net carbon emissions to zero from 2050 to 2030. They say ‘All spending and investment decisions will be made in the context of meeting the Net Zero strategy, and social and environmental criteria will be given equal weight to financial criteria in all contracting.’