Cambridge heritage charity says City Deal must take holistic approach to achieve objectives
The City Deal say they are committed to protecting the green belt and building on brownfield sites.
Cambridge heritage conservation charity, Cambridge Past, Present and Future, have appealed to City Deal leaders to rethink the approach to its objectives.
The statement from Cambridge PPF says:"Although we support its overall aims and objectives, we have serious reservations about the approach it has adopted. We suggest a number of practical steps to improve its performance, with specific reference to the growing controversy over the Cambourne to Cambridge bus route.
"However our support of the principle for the City Deal is tempered by serious reservations about its approach.
"We agree that the priority must be given to pedestrians, cyclists and public transport, but other modes of public transport must be part of its remit. If any city in the UK can come forward with exciting and innovative ways of addressing the universal problem of urban congestion, it ought to be Cambridge, but the City Deal seems to be stuck with a focus on engineering solutions for new bus-lanes. Non-polluting shuttle buses, driverless buses, light rail, even the use of tunnels beneath the city, should all be part of its thinking.
"The City air quality already on occasion breaches both European and UK legal pollution limits, so increasing the numbers of large polluting buses in the city centre will simply make a bad situation worse.
"The City Deal needs to adopt a more holistic approach to tackle traffic management across the whole city and to break away from its current piecemeal project-by-project approach to deliver a more strategic joined-up vision.
"Decisions are being made in a rush with insufficient consideration given to the broader sustainable development issues early in the design stages."
The full statement and recommendations can be found online.
Cllr Francis Burkitt, vice chair of the City Deal Board, said:"As Cambridge PPF recognises, the City Deal is a fantastic opportunity to help address Cambridge's current and growing problems - ensuring people can find a home they can afford, travel easily between home, work, study and leisure, and that businesses can access the skills they need to succeed in a competitive economy.
"Our strategy, supporting the Local Plans, will maintain Cambridge as a compact, heritage city, surrounded by countryside and green belt, by delivering new and liveable communities on the fringes at brownfield sites. Our funding is finite and some of the recommendations Cambridge PPF highlight would simply not be affordable or deliverable within the time and budget constraints of our deal with government.
"Nevertheless, we welcome CPPF's support and respect the views and challenges of its members and will be meeting further with representatives in the New Year to discuss these matters in greater detail."
