As we’ve mentioned here before last September Cambridgeshire County Council was proposing to bring in parking charges at all P&R sites, including ours in Butt Lane on the other side of the A10.

There were obvious concerns that this was likely to increase parking on Butt Lane, Coulson Close and other roads in that area and also about increased traffic in Butt Lane from people in their cars hurrying to get the bus to work at a time when children are heading for Milton Primary School and we encouraged you to write in. That seems to have worked as according to Cambridge News nearly 200 objections were submitted.

As a result some some changes are now being proposed by the council. Firstly to the charges, which were going to be:

• Up to 1 hour – free
• between 1 hour and 12 hours – £1
• between 12 hours and 24 hours – £10

They have now extended it so that you can park there for up to 18 hours for £1 rather than 12.

Secondly they intend to put double yellow lines on Butt Lane, but according to a post on milton-chat by our county councillor Maurice Leeke this will be on the other side of the A10, not in Milton.

The first of these measures may help reduce the potential problem of people using the village for free parking, the second won’t (although, taking a wider view, it is arguably a good thing as a line of parked cars on Butt Lane on the other side of the A10 wouldn’t be desirable either).

Cllr Leeke said in his post:

The county council’s Cabinet has also said that it will undertake a
survey of the level of parking in Butt Lane, Coulson Close and Humphries
Way before and after the introduction of the parking charge, to see what
effect if any the parking charge has on parking there. There is not a
commitment to introduce any particular scheme as a result.

I think the way forward is to see what the effect is first, before
deciding what needs to be done about it. The solution does not need to
be double lines down the whole length of Butt Lane with residents’
parking bays, for instance – there are other options. But let’s see the
symptoms before prescribing the medicine.

Your parish council is also aware of the issue and will be monitoring the situation.

(Photo © copyright Hugh Venables and is licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.)