We alerted you back in July about the twin Local Plan and Transport Strategy Consultations which give residents, business and stakeholders across South Cambridgeshire a final chance to have their say on plans for 22,000 new jobs and 5,000 additional new homes over the next 20 years. As we said in that posting it’s hard to underemphasis how big an impact this will have on the area, especially the proposals at Waterbeach with the knock on implications that has for Milton.

Since then you may have also had a leaflet from the local Lib Dem team with their take on what’s going on. So here’s ours.

The first thing to be aware of is that this is a very long term strategy. “New Waterbeach” will be big, approximately 8,000-9,000 homes (“A new town of 8,000 to 9,000 dwellings and associated uses is proposed on the former Waterbeach Barracks and land to the east and north” – Policy SS/5 Waterbeach New Town, paragraph 1.), when it’s completed so five times the size of Waterbeach and a similar size to Ely now. However this is in the long term, by 2031 it will be no more than 1,400 new homes (“No more than 1,400 dwellings will be completed by 2031” – Ibid, paragraph 5), so perhaps doubling the size of Waterbeach.

Having a new town there is going to have impacts, both positive and negative for Milton: for example the train station will be moved north away from Milton (“A relocated Waterbeach station to serve the village and the new town” – Ibid, paragraph x) but conversely upgrades to transport infrastructure (see below), may make it easier to reach and of course we also should have the Cambridge Science Park station coming on stream on a rather shorter timescale which may make villagers less interested in using Waterbeach station at all. A new town also brings potential for alternative retail options in easy reach of Milton (assuming they don’t end up with yet another Tesco).

It seems to us that the major impacts in Milton lie in the area of transport, and that also ties in with the other consultation so we’ve spent some time on the Transport Strategy Consultation web pages and in particular reading the Draft Transport Strategy for Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire (July 2013) (Adobe/PDF, 3000KB). Section 5 discusses the “Ely and Waterbeach to Cambridge Corridor” and there you will find this map which summarises the proposals:

This map clearly shows where the issues for Milton itself lie:

1. The A10 is shown as being subject to major road improvements on its existing line, by which we assume they mean upgrading to dual carriageway.
2. The “new busway or high quality bus route” is shown going down the Mere Way at least as far as Butt Lane where it looks like it would probably enter the back of the Park & Ride site before continuing south over the A14 alongside the A10.

The first of these would clearly be bad news for Milton, especially if you live on the west side of the village as they would presumably want to use the land between the existing A10 and the bund (Interestingly the land north of Butt Lane is currently in the ownership of Milton Parish Council so although the parish council probably couldn’t stop it being used there should be some windfall money from the compulsory purchase).

We mentioned the Lib Dem leaflet earlier because that posits a different route for the A10.

On their map (This map isn’t from their leaflet but from this article on Cllr Leeke’s web site and it appears to be the proposal on which the leaflet was based.) the A10 is re-routed to the west (shown in red), only re-joining the existing line of the A10 at Butt Lane. We’re not clear why they think this is a likely route (We have asked, they’ve not replied, but we can’t find mention of it in the Transport Stategy Consultation document, however that document does make clear it’s currently only a “high level” plan, so it’s possible that routes may change) but if it did happen this would be better news for Milton, especially those at the north west end of the village in the Humphries Way estate as it would move the A10 away from Milton.

The other issue is the new bus route or busway. If it does go down the Mere Way, as shown in the consultation document, it would be of no great benefit to Milton, however if it goes down the route suggested on the Lib Dem’s map where it comes to Milton to the east of the current line of the A10 (route shown in green) then we could, potentially, get access to some stops on the route.

Where this leaves you if you’re intending to comment on the plans is a little curious but it seems to us that you may want to object to the routes proposed in the consultation and instead support those on the Lib Dem’s map (as despite their suggestion that they’re bad we don’t think they are … for Milton – they’re certainly preferable to the alternatives).

There is one final issue we should mention: both the Local Plan (“Highway Improvements: […] Additional capacity to meet the forecast road traffic generation of the new town, [at] the junction with the A14;” – Policy SS/5 Waterbeach New Town, paragraph dd.) and the Transport Strategy Consultation (“Additional capacity at the Milton Interchange for movements between the A10 and A14, and the A14 and the A10” – Draft Transport Strategy for Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire (July 2013), Figure 5.4, page 5-8.) make it clear that the A14/A10 will be upgraded to give it extra capacity. Given that the A10 will be feeding two lanes onto the junction, rather than one, plus additional bus traffic too, this is unsurprising. The potential issue for Milton is that our main recreation ground backs onto that junction however there is some waste ground to the west of the bund and the land fill site opposite so hopefully room can be found but if you are going to comment it would be worth highlighting this issue and the need to preserve our existing recreation space.

Comments on the local plan can be made online on a point by point basis (you will need to register if you’ve not already done so). Similarly you can comment on the Transport Strategy Consultation using the their online form.

You have until 30th September for both documents. If you want to discuss the proposals with officers first the plans are continuing their way around the county although sadly they’re not coming to Milton so your nearest remaining opportunity is on 5th September at Histon & Impington Recreation Ground, New Road, Impington from 2.30pm to 7.30pm.