Newmarket Road Park & Ride site relocation to be discussed
Proposals to relocate the Newmarket Road Park & Ride site are due to be discussed by the Greater Cambridge Partnership this week.
Plans to improve Adams Road – as well as streets and paths in the villages of Coton and Barton – are also on the agenda.
The GCP joint assembly will hear a report outlining the proposed Park & Ride site relocation to a new and expanded travel hub to replace the current site.
The suggested location referred to as Site P1, immediately south of Newmarket Road and east of Airport Way, was the most popular among respondents to a public consultation in 2022 and it has been put forward as the preferred option.
It follows further traffic modelling and data collection which was requested by the GCP’s executive board in September 2023.
The report explains: “The evidence shows that the majority (40 per cent) of the existing users arrive from the A14 East (towards Newmarket) followed by 15 per cent from Airport Way and A14 West.
“Only a small proportion route via the A1303 Newmarket Road (two per cent) and B1102 (six per cent) to the north of the Quy Interchange.
“The evidence demonstrates [that] locating to the north of the A14 will not directly intercept a large proportion of existing Park & Ride users.
“The existing Park & Ride site is used on match days at Cambridge United. Of the alternative sites P1 is easiest to access on foot from the Cambridge United Football Ground.”
The proposals form part of the Cambridge Eastern Access project which aims to improve walking, cycling and public transport journeys to the east of the city.
The joint assembly will meet on 12 September ahead of a meeting of the executive board – the GCP’s decision making committee – in October. The board will decide whether to submit a planning application for the preferred site.
Members will also be asked to consider proposals to carry out early works on Adams Road in Cambridge and in Coton village following engagement with residents earlier this year.
This work – which forms part of the Comberton Greenway linking Comberton, Coton and Cambridge with a spur to Hardwick – would include traffic-calming measures and landscaping.
The community will be able to learn more on the updated designs at a drop-in event to be held on 10 September in Coton village hall.
The report also contains proposals to improve road safety in Barton with the construction of a new zebra crossing and the expansion of a 20mph zone, with works already under way to widen the existing path along the Barton Road between the Haggis Farm Roundabout and the city.
The GCP has also published the Greenways Green and Blue Infrastructure (GBI) strategy in the report. This is to ensure the designs are sensitive to the different landscapes and communities the 12 routes will travel through, while enhancing them wherever possible.
The greenways are a network of 12 new routes being developed by the GCP to make it safer and easier to walk and cycle between Cambridge and surrounding villages.
